Electro-Mechanical Control Loading System for Rotary Wing Aircraft Simulators

Abstract

The focus of this paper is on the development of a high-fidelity electro-mechanical Control Loading System (CLS) for a rotary wing aircraft simulator. CLS is one of the major components of a flight simulator. It is used for providing realistic force feedback to pilots. The pilot in a real aircraft feels the forces acting on control surfaces through cockpit controls. During simulation, these forces are produced by CLS actuators. For this reason, CLS must behave exactly like the aircraft control hardware, statically and dynamically. The fidelity of the force feel simulation is a key criterion for flight simulation certification. It is also important that a CLS design is reconfigurable and modular such that it conforms easily to different simulator models and simulations of different aircrafts. The work also includes system integration of a research simulator for testing purposes. Design and selection of hardware and software components of the CLS and the simulator are presented along with the overall system architecture.