Development of a Real-Time Multi-Rotorcraft Simulator for Army Aviation Test and Evaluation

The U.S. Army Aviation Technical Test Center (ATTC) is actively involved in the development of a real-time multi-rotorcraft simulator for Army aviation test and evaluation (T&E). A central part of the simulation is to provide pilot-in-the-loop capability for real-time low-fidelity analysis or engineer-in-the-loop for a variable-fidelity and/or validation analysis. To achieve this capability, the Flight Test Simulation Station (FTSS) within ATTC uses the Pilot/Remote Intelligent Symbology Management Simulator (PRISMS) hardware, which includes a helmet-mounted display to provide a cost-effective pilot-in-the-loop and flight symbol generation capability. The PRISMS hardware has been expanded to include a Comanche cockpit shell, crew seat, and Comanche-representative pilot flight controls hardware. The end goal being to provide the simulation pilot with a set of flight controls whose design is based on a balance between fidelity and sensitivity requirements, multi-rotorcraft adaptability and flexible software to hardware interface. The flight controls design in the Comanche Portable Cockpit (CPC) is being used as the baseline hardware specification while the underlying signal transducers and conditioners are designed to accommodate any other set of rotorcraft controls. A process has been developed which allows for the rapid retrofit of the flight dynamics models (FDMs) within the hardware to accommodate each of the Army's rotorcraft. This process is possible with the use of FLIGHTLAB software that is employed to generate portable, executable codes of defined-fidelity FDMs. Keys to the development of the multi-rotorcraft FDMs are the model editor and the control system graphical editor tools supported by FLIGHTLAB. High Level Architecture (HLA)-compliant simulation object model (SOM) has been developed within FTSS to permit a transfer and exchange of data with other simulations. The design of the SOM is structured to provide a robust and adaptable input/output data interface which, when communicating with other SOMs, will provide a high degree of flexibility with a minimum amount of user involvement.