MOREALIS

MOREALIS focuses on a holistic approach towards flight safety in general aviation - consisting of a micro-aircraft airframe designed for emergency landing, systems for monitoring pilot and aircraft condition and an intervention management system for automatic and safe action in an emergency.
Previous emergency handling systems such as parachutes can lead to structural damage to the aircraft or damage to third parties. However, thanks to innovative sensors, integrated autopilots and artificial intelligence methods, alternative emergency landing systems are also conceivable.
Critical situations could be automatically recognized by the continuous diagnosis and assessment of the pilot's medical and cognitive capacities on the one hand, and by the functional testing of the integrity of the aircraft on the other; all are to be evaluated in terms of an emergency landing to be initiated, and if an automatic emergency landing is necessary. The prerequisites for this are the computer-aided selection of potential landing fields before the flight, the detection of obstacles during the emergency landing and intelligent flight path planning and flight control (by taking into account the flight dynamics model, the environment and the necessary conditions for a safe emergency landing) of the emergency descent. This is precisely where the MOREALIS project aims to start.

CONTRIBUTIONS FROM UNIBW M (Chair of Flight Mechanics and Flight Guidance) IN THE FOLLOWING AREAS:

Cognitive state recognition:

The automated estimation and assessment of the pilot's cognitive or mental state on the basis of behavioral measurements in the cockpit. This refers to cognitive-ergonomic constructs such as attention distribution, mental workload or situational awareness.

Cockpit dialogue:

The development, integration and testing of functionalities in the cockpit meant for conducting dialogues with the pilot of an ultralight aircraft in case of the detection of a critical (medical or cognitive) condition of the pilot.
These functionalities include:

• Obtaining and securing further information about the medical and cognitive state of the pilot
• Mentally alerting and reactivating the pilot
• Informing the pilot about the possible initiation and progress of measures for emergency landing

Intervention management:

The provision of centralized functionality for determining, coordinating and triggering interventions with the aim of (re)establishing a safe flight condition.

Flight path planning:

The development of an AI-based flight path planner for emergency descent.
With regard to a safe emergency landing, the wind, obstacles and the kinematics of the aircraft (including in the event of a loss of engine power) are taken into account.

INTEGRATION AND TESTING WITH PROJECT PARTNERS

The aim of the MOREALIS project is to develop and test a prototype of an integrated monitoring and emergency management system that is capable of independently assessing the physical condition of the pilot and, if necessary, initiating and carrying out an automatic emergency descent. A prototype system is to be integrated, demonstrated and tested in a simulation environment. Safe and passenger-friendly aviation represents a significant contribution to the objective of the research funding.

FURTHER INFORMATION

The University of the Bundeswehr Munich (UniBw M) is represented in MOREALIS by the Institute of Flight Systems. In addition to the Chair of Flight Mechanics and Flight Guidance, the Chair of Aeronautical Engineering (LFT, Prof Stütz) is also conducting research in the field of obstacle detection.

The project at the Chair of Aeronautical Engineering

PROJECT DURATION:  

01.06.2021 – 31.05.2025

ASSICIATED PROJECT

under the leadership of SFL GmbH

PARTNER

STAR Healthcare Management GmbH (KMU)

Universität der Bundeswehr München (WIS)unibw.de/

Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V. (WIS)