Global solution of optimization problems in support of certification and formulation of operational procedures for rotorcraft vehicles

In this paper we present a procedure for the global solution of trajectory optimization and parameter estimation problems for rotorcraft vehicles using evolutionary algorithms. Our approach makes use of a repair heuristic to handle problem constraints, that is based on a sequential quadratic programming method. This way, no specialized evolutionary operators or ad hoc modifications of the objective function need to be considered. The performance of the proposed procedure is assessed with applications dealing with the flight testing for system identification of a rotorcraft unmanned aerial vehicle, and with the determination of the Category A take-off decision point for a medium-size helicopter.