6 Degrees of Freedom Flight Simulator for Engineering Studies

Abstract

This paper presents the main characteristics of the six degrees of freedom (6DOF) flight simulator for aeronautical engineering studies developed by the Flight Dynamics Simulation Group (GSDV) at the Flight Simulation and Control Laboratory (LSCV) of the Universidad Tecnológica Nacional, Facultad Regional Haedo. The main objectives of the simulator are to serve as a research tool to characterize models and flight qualities of the aircraft that students design during their career and to serve as a training or study platform for crews, professorships, etc. For this reason, the simulator has a generic and configurable cabin. The software that guides the different components has been specified and developed within the LSCV. The force feedback system is one of the distinctive features of the simulator and has also been developed by the GSDV. The force system, the cockpit instruments and the external scene are distributed and controlled by several computers interconnected in a network. The modules are presented here, their advantages and disadvantages. The force feedback model is particularly important for the purposes of this flight simulator. To obtain greater realism in the efforts in the controls, special care has been taken to implement hinge moment equations in the simulation software. The result is a reliable closed-loop force feedback system on all aircraft commands.