Rotorcraft Pilot’s Associate Full-Mission Simulation Architecture

The Rotorcraft Pilot’s Associate (RPA) program demonstrates cognitive decision aiding technology focused on aiding the Army aviation pilot in execution of attack, reconnaissance, and special operations forces (SOF) missions. The development, integration, and evaluation of this crew-aiding technology required a flexible, rapid-prototyping, full mission simulation system. The RPA Full Mission Simulation (FMS) was developed to meet these objectives. The RPA FMS architecture includes: dual crew stations, advanced controls and displays, advanced mission equipment package, tactical mission computer environment, manned team player stations, an area-of-interest head-tracked dome visual for the pilot, System Control, flexible data collection, large area terrain databases, and the RPA crew aiding system. The RPA FMS system is based on commercially available off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware and software with major system components hosted on Silicon Graphics symmetric multiprocessing computers.