Objective Function Development for Optimized Path Guidance for Rotorcraft Shipboard Recovery
John K. Tritschler, Joseph F. Horn · AIAA Atmospheric Flight Mechanics Conference · 2015
A methodology is presented for formulating objective functions that may be incorporated in formal optimization studies with the goal of determining path guidance for autonomous rotorcraft shipboard recovery. In the present study, two objective functions are developed within the context of two separate trajectory optimizations that are executed simultaneously. The objective functions are designed to include multiple performance factors, and the relative weights between those performance factors are tailored for operational considerations. Results illustrate that the specific performance factors and relative weights can influence the mathematical properties of the resulting optimization problem, which may influence the tractability of the numerical solution. Additionally, it was found that segmenting the path variables in spatial and temporal variables was effective for analyzing the results of this particular optimization.