Development and Implementation of a Mission Data-Handling Algorithm for an Automatic Flight Guidance System

This paper presents a mission data-handling algorithm that provides a data link interface between a flight control computer (FCC) and a ground control station (GCS) using the protocol standard STANAG 4586, AEP-84 Volume II. A subset of defined messages is used for the transmission of mission and area definition data. Functions for decoding uplink messages, processing received data, and encoding downlink messages are developed. Due to a modular software architecture, these functions can be used both for the onboard FCC, as well as for the GCS using additional logic, to invert the transmission direction. Furthermore, high level consistency and validation checks are performed on the transmitted data before forwarding the mission to the flight guidance functions. Successful transmission of mission and area data between the FCC and the GCS is performed using a high-fidelity model-in-the-loop simulation of a demo mission for a medical evacuation eVTOL aircraft.