Prof. Pierluigi Capone

Work at ZHAW

Position

• Head Flight Mechanics and Flight Control Systems
• Professional development course - Specific Operations Risk Assessment (SORA) for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV)
• SoE Coordinator for drones and unmanned aerial vehicles

Focus

• Design, specification and development from limited control authority to full fly-by-wire flight control systems for fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft
• Parameter Estimation for research, development and training purposes
• Development of Real-time simulatiors (simulation model, control loading, motion base and visual system)
• Flight Test for Flight Control System and Parameter Estimation, Planning, Instrumentation, Execution, data Analysis
• Development of new inceptor designs suitable for tiltrotor and compound helicopter designs.

Teaching

• Aircraft Systems - Control Systems
• Flight Mechanics and Simulation
• System Reliability, Availability, Maintainability, Safety
• Safety Critical Systems (MSE)

Professional development teaching

WBK Specific Operations Risk Assessment (SORA) for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV)

Experience

• Head of Control Laws Design - Fly by Wire Integrated Team
  AgustaWestland
  2008 - 2013
• Chief Project Engineer for Fly by Wire
  Sistemi Dinamici, Italy, on behalf of AgustaWestland
  2006 - 2008
• Middle Management, Flight Control System Group – Rotorcraft Flight Control System Design, Integration and Flight Testing
  AgustaWestland, Italy
  2004 - 2006
• Engineer Specialist, Active Control Technology Group - Design, verification, clearance, pilot in the loop simulation and flight test of digital control laws.
  Bombardier Aerospace, Canada
  2001 - 2004
• Senior Engineer, Flight Controls and Handling Qualities Groups – BA609 Tilt-Rotor Flight Control System Development
  Bell Helicopter, USA (on Behalf of Agusta SpA)
  2000 - 2001
• Guidance, Navigation & Control Engineer, Flight Control System Group - Responsible for M346 Advanced Trainer Control Laws
  Aermacchi SpA
  1995 - 2000
• Engineer Aerodynamics Office - Perfromenace, Flight Test and Certification
  Pilatus Aircraft Ltd
  1995 - 1995

Education and Continuing education

Education

• CAS University Didactic
  PHZH
  2022 - 2023
• EASA Design Organisation Approval, Certification of aircraft and related products, parts and appliances, and of design and production organisations
  JAA Training Organization
  2021 - 2021
• Development Courses - Middle Management
  AgustaWestland
  2004 - 2012
• Leadership Development
  Bombardier Aerospace
  2004 - 2004
• Aircraft Reliability and FAR/JAR Design Requirements
  Bombardier Aerospace
  2003 - 2003
• MSc In Aerospace Engineering / Aeroservoelasticity
  Politecnico di Milano
  1988 - 1994

Continuing Education

Private Pilot Licence
Avilu flight School
1992

Network

Membership of networks

• ERF (European Rotorcraft Forum) International Committee
• Working Group: WG-112 / Vertical Take Off and Landing (VTOL)
• Alumni Politecnico di Milano
• Vertical Flight Society
• Swiss Association of Aeronautical Sciences

ORCID digital identifier

ORCID ID: 0009-0006-5395-5670

Social media

Linkedin

Projects

• Flight mechanics of a tilt-wing aircraft under harsh conditions / Deputy project leader / laufend
• Swiss Drone Base Camp Lodrino / Team member / laufend
• White-box Helicopter System Identification / Project leader / laufend
• Simulation tool to predict the aerodynamics of tilt-wing aircraft / Deputy project leader / abgeschlossen
• Digital Transformation - Case Studies for Aviation Safety Standards - Modelling and Simulation / Project leader / abgeschlossen
• High Operational Reliability for Unmanned Systems / Project leader / abgeschlossen
• Concept and Feasibility Study of a Power Reserve Calculator for General Aviation / Team member / abgeschlossen
• Novel Generic Collision Avoidance Algorithm / Project leader / abgeschlossen

Publications

• Liu, Xinying; Abà, Anna; Capone, Pierluigi; Manfriani, Leonardo; Fu, Yongling,

  2022.

  Atmospheric disturbance modelling for a piloted flight simulation study of airplane safety envelope over complex terrain.

  Aerospace.

  9(2), pp. 103.

  Available from: https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace9020103

• Abà, Anna; Barra, Federico; Capone, Pierluigi; Guglieri, Giorgio,

  2020.

  Mathematical modelling of gimballed tilt-rotors for real-time flight simulation.

  Aerospace.

  7(9), pp. 124.

  Available from: https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace7090124

• Monstein, Raphael; Capone, Pierluigi; Dettling, Marcel,

  2019.

  Determination of model structure from flight test with generalized additive models.

  Journal of Aircraft.

  Available from: https://doi.org/10.2514/1.C035171

• Moorhouse, David J.; de Boer, Wim; Fielding, Chris; Hahn, Klaus-Uwe; Hofinger, Georg; Magni, Jean-Francois; Verde, Leopoldo; Amato, Francesco; Attar, Moshe; Black, Thomas; Barfield, Finley; Cord, Thomas; Capone, Pierluigi; Dinkelmann, Michael; Duda, Holger; Gibson, John; Iervolino, Raffaele; Jategaonkar, Javindra; Moormann, Dieter; Scala, Stefano; van der Weerd, Rogier,

  2000.

  Flight control design : best practices.

  Neuilly-sur-Seine:

  Research and Technology Organization, North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

  RTO technical report ; 29.

  ISBN 92-837-1047-9.

  Available from: http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a387777.pdf

• Pedrioli, Andrea; Capone, Pierluigi; Righi, Marcello; Garcia-Sanchez, Elena; Pinsard, Laurent; Vieira Gomes, Joana,

  2024.

  MODEL-SI : modeling and simulation - multi-fidelity surrogate model of an eVTOL for certification[paper].

  In:

  American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Science and Technology Forum and Exposition (AIAA SciTech Forum), Orlando, USA, 8-12 January 2024.

  American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

  Available from: https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2024-1624

• Abà, Anna; Pedrioli, Andrea; Monstein, Raphael; Hitz, Manuel; Schneider, Rafael; Capone, Pierluigi,

  2023.

  Convertiplane control during transition : the Collective and Throttle Lever (CATL)[paper].

  In:

  49th European Rotorcraft Forum 2023 - Proceedings.

  49th European Rotorcraft Forum, Bückeburg, Germany, 5-7 September 2023.

  Bonn:

  Deutsche Gesellschaft für Luft- und Raumfahrt - Lilienthal-Oberth e.V..

• Pavel, Marilena; Abà, Anna; Capone, Pierluigi,

  2023.

  Metrics and guidelines for rotorcraft modeling accuracy and their relation to model uncertainty : a state-of-the practice survey[paper].

  In:

  49th European Rotorcraft Forum 2023 - Proceedings.

  49th European Rotorcraft Forum, Bückeburg, Germany, 5-7 September 2023.

  Bonn:

  Deutsche Gesellschaft für Luft- und Raumfahrt - Lilienthal-Oberth e.V..

• Garbo, Pierre; Quaranta, Giuseppe; Capone, Pierluigi,

  2023.

  Non-invasive optical sensors to measure pilots’ forces on aircraft control inceptors[paper].

  In:

  AIAA AVIATION 2023 Forum.

  AIAA AVIATION Forum, San Diego, USA and online, 12-16 June 2023.

  American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

  Available from: https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2023-3321

• Primatesta, Stefano; Barra, Federico; Godio, Simone; Guglieri, Giorgio; Capone, Pierluigi,

  2023.

  Implementation of a comprehensive real-time flight simulator for XV-15 tilt-rotor aircraft[paper].

  In:

  AIAA SciTech 2023 Forum.

  American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) SciTech Forum, National Harbor, USA, 23-27 January 2023.

  Reston, VA:

  American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

  Available from: https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2023-0336

• Figuet, Benoit; Leibundgut, Prosper; Pedrioli, Andrea; Frauenfelder, Arno; Doran, Hans Dermot; Capone, Pierluigi,

  2022.

  HORUS : High Operational Reliability for Unmanned Systems[paper].

  In:

  48th European Rotorcraft Forum (ERF), Winterthur, Switzerland, 6-9 September 2022.

  European Rotorcraft Forum.

  Available from: https://doi.org/10.21256/zhaw-27218

• Capone, Pierluigi; Rinaldi, Marco; Guglieri, Giorgio,

  2022.

  Comprehensive analysis and configuration of a control loading solution for a rotary wing flight simulator[paper].

  In:

  Forum 78 Proceedings.

  78th Annual Forum and Technology Display, Fort Worth, Texas, 10-12 May 2022.

  Fairfax:

  Vertical Flight Society.

  Available from: https://doi.org/10.4050/F-0078-2022-17573

• Capone, Pierluigi; Primatesta, Stefano; Barra, Federico; Guglieri, Giorgio,

  2022.

  Design and integration of a tilt-rotor flight simulation platform[paper].

  In:

  Forum 78 Proceedings.

  78th Annual Forum and Technology Display, Fort Worth, Texas, 10-12 May 2022.

  Fairfax, VA:

  Vertical Flight Society.

  Available from: https://doi.org/10.4050/F-0078-2022-17587

• Barra, Federico; Capone, Pierluigi; Guglieri, Giorgio,

  2020.

  A methodology for preliminary performance estimation of a hybrid-electric tilt-wing aircraft for emergency medical services[paper].

  In:

  2020 International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems (ICUAS).

  International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems (ICUAS), Athens, Greece, 1-4 September 2020.

  IEEE.

  pp. 1636-1643.

  Available from: https://doi.org/10.1109/ICUAS48674.2020.9214025

• Doran, Hans Dermot; Reif, Monika Ulrike; Oehler, Marco; Stöhr, Curdin; Capone, Pierluigi,

  2020.

  Conceptual design of human-drone communication in collaborative environments[paper].

  In:

  2020 50th Annual IEEE/IFIP International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks Workshops (DSN-W).

  International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks Workshops (DSN-W), Valencia, Spain, 29 June - 2 July 2020.

  IEEE.

  pp. 118-121.

  Available from: https://doi.org/10.1109/DSN-W50199.2020.00030

• Barra, Federico; Capone, Pierluigi; Monstein, Raphael; Godio, Simone; Guglieri, Giorgio,

  2019.

  Implementation of a comprehensive mathematical model for tilt-rotor real-time flight simulation[paper].

  In:

  45th European Rotorcraft Forum, Warsaw, Poland, 17-20 September 2019.

  ZHAW Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften.

  Available from: https://doi.org/10.21256/zhaw-19753

• Capone, Pierluigi,

  2002.

  Linearization of aircraft models : a flight control system and flying qualities perspective[paper].

  In:

  Challenges in dynamics, system identification, control and handling qualities for land, air sea and space vehicles.

  RTO Systems - Concepts and Integration Panel (SCI) Symposium, Berlin, Deutschland, 13.-15. Mai 2002.

  Neuilly-sur-Seine:

  Research and Technology Organization, North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

• Capone, Pierluigi; Mantegazza, Paolo,

  1995.

  Adaptive control of a multi-input multi-output flutter suppression system[paper].

  In:

  Nineteenth European Rotorcraft Forum : Cernobbio (Como), September 14-16, 1993.

  Nineteenth European Rotorcraft Forum, Cernobbio, Italy, 14-16 September 1993.

  Amsterdam:

  National Aerospace Laboratory.

• Deverlija, Jan Juraj; Abà, Anna; Capone, Pierluigi; Masi, Alessandro; Daniele, Matteo; Scorcelletti, Francesco,

  2024.

  A novel wake interference model for helicopter real-time simulation[paper].

  In:

  50th European Rotorcraft Forum, Marseille, France, 10-12 September 2024.

  ZHAW Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften.

  Available from: https://doi.org/10.21256/zhaw-32606

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