Let’s say something happened to a plane (engine went off etc.) yet it is still capable of safe landing.
Is autoland feature (Autoland - Wikipedia) capable of of landing the plane compensating for damages that are done?
The answer is “it depends”. “Autoland” is a control system, composed of a raft of separate computer systems and sensors. When you change the parameters of the aircraft (by an engine falling off, etc), some control algorithms will no longer converge on a solution. Instead, either the algorithm that tries to keep the aircraft lined up on the glide-path will cause the aircraft to deviate farther from the glidepath than doing nothing at all, or, many aircraft control systems will probably simply dump to manual control in such a situation.
This is what I would predict would happen : the “autoland” feature, like the autopilot, would refuse to control the aircraft if you had something catastrophic like an engine fall off. It would be up to the pilots to either get things under control or crash.
But that’s the theory. Specific answers would depend on which aircraft and be very situation dependent. I have read about state of the art, “learning” control algorithms that can control aircraft that human pilots would have no chance of controlling (such as an aircraft with jammed ailerons) , but I don’t think such algorithms are actually the ones used in commercial aircraft.
For the specific example given, yes it can land with an engine gone. The limitations for the Avro RJ auto land system simply says that the approach must be commenced with a minimum of three engines operating (of four). There is no functional difference between an engine not working and not being there at all. There are no other failure conditions listed which would suggest that for normal failures (electrical and hydraulic mainly) it can handle the approach and landing. For any failure that involved control problems I’d say you’re on your own.
One of the biggest limitations of the auto land system is that it can only handle up to 10 knots of cross wind. This is normally not a problem as the system is mainly needed when the conditions are foggy and fog doesn’t form in strong winds.
How does the system handle these “out of range” conditions? If there’s 12 knots of crosswind, does it warn you but continue working, or just dump control to the pilot?
I have a feeling the OP is cooking up some kind of fictional story where this is a plot point, or is evaluating the accuracy of an existing story. Both pilots are dead, and an engine has fallen off, how do we get this plane down?
It doesn’t do anything. It doesn’t know the crosswind, it just tries to land. It would probably handle it ok but if you ran off the side of the runway it would be the pilot’s fault for ignoring the limitation not the manufacturers fault.
You still need someone in the cockpit to tune the ILS frequency, arm the approach, slow the aeroplane down, descend, extend the gear and flaps, and in the RJ, apply the brakes after touchdown–more modern types have auto brakes.