Our team is working on a flight system capable of quickly detecting the onset of a spin and automatically recovering the aircraft with minimal loss of altitude. For this purpose, we identified an aerodynamic model capable of simulating flight with separated boundary layers (stall), designed an optimal control system to minimize lost altitude, and developed an early detection system. This was experimentally tested on unmanned aircraft, demonstrating that the flight system can reduce lost altitude by a factor of four compared to a human pilot, with the potential to eliminate 45% of spin-related accidents.
Automatic Spin Detection
Spins are unintentional events in which an aircraft's wing enters an asymmetric stall, causing a descending spiral trajectory. Due to the rapid occurrence of the event and the disorientation caused by the rotational movement, it often takes a pilot multiple rotations to recognize that the aircraft is in a spin and to recover from it. Consequently, if a spin occurs at low altitude, it becomes very challenging for a pilot to recover the aircraft before colliding with the ground.
Spins are responsible for a significant percentage of fatal accidents in small aircraft, such as the Cessna 172.
