Situational awareness, vehicle control, and/or contingency planning for aircraft actuator failure

A system comprising:

• a set of one or more processors;
• and
• a computer readable storage medium comprising stored instructions that, when executed by the set of one or more processors, cause the set of one or more processors to perform steps comprising:
• while an aircraft is flying in a first flight mode:
• receiving data from one or more sensors of the aircraft;
• and
• based on received data from one or more sensors, identifying an actuation failure of an actuator of a flight control surface;
• and
• subsequent to identifying the actuation failure of the actuator of the flight control surface, controlling the aircraft to fly in a modified flight mode, wherein controlling the aircraft to fly in the modified flight mode comprises:
• determining a directional bias caused by the actuation failure;
• determining a modified flight plan based on the determined directional bias caused by the actuation failure;
• and
• controlling the aircraft to fly based on the modified flight plan and the directional bias.

A system for an aircraft, the system comprising:

• actuators of the aircraft configured to control flight control surfaces of the aircraft;
• sensors of the aircraft configured to generate data corresponding to a state of the aircraft;
• an execution section comprising:
• a state estimator configured to:
• receive data from the sensors of the aircraft while the aircraft is flying;
• based on the received data, identify an actuation failure of an actuator of the aircraft;
• and
• subsequent to identifying the actuation failure of the actuator of the flight control surface, determine a directional bias caused by the actuation failure;
• and
• a planning section comprising:
• a contingency manager configured to:
• determine a modified flight plan based on the determined directional bias caused by the actuation failure,
• wherein the execution section further comprises a mission executor configured to control the aircraft to fly based on the modified flight plan.