Evaluation of the pilot perception in a robotic flight simulator with and without a linear unit

Abstract

© 2019, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Inc, AIAA. All rights reserved.This paper presents the SIVOR project, an anthropomorphic-robotic flight simulator under development at the Aeronautics Institute of Technology (ITA), discussing the contribution of an additional 7th degree of freedom (DOF) provided by a linear unit to improve the pilot perception inside the flight simulator. In this context, starting from a canonical washout filter (CWF) implementation, a model-based comparative evaluation – regarding the pilot sensation – is performed considering (i) models of the robotic system with and without the linear unit, (ii) modified versions of the motion-cue algorithm (MCA), (iii) and perception models of the human vestibular system. Such integrated model is used also as the first verification for a predefined flight mission. The results obtained so far suggest an improvement on the representation of the linear acceleration as a larger workspace is provided, though also highlighting the need for further developments on the MCA structure for a better usage of the near feature.