Martin Gestwa

Development of a Fuzzy-Controller with a State Machine as a Cognitive Pilot Model for an ILS Approach

In the area of airplane system technology aspects of Human Factors or Human Computer Interaction are already significant for a long time. In this context raise the questions: How realistic is a flight simulation? Is it depending on its quality? The investigation of this aspect can be supported by using pilot models. The aim of this work is the development of a fuzzy controller, which can be used as a model of a human pilot during the approach phase of an aircraft. To get information about the control behavior of a human pilot, a pilot performs two ILS approaches in a fix based ground simulator. This information is the data basis for the development of the pilot model. The first design step was to create a fuzzycontroller for the lateral and longitudinal motion. The integration of these two fuzzycontrollers represents the initial fuzzy control system. An intensive analyze of the human control behavior results in the fact that a human pilot operates like a finite state machine with two states: Observation and Control. This aspect was used to develop a second fuzzycontroller. Furthermore, the second fuzzy-controller has to be adapted to a human pilot. Therefore, the structure of the fuzzy-controller was redesigned. At the end the cognitive pilot model was compared with the human pilot by using the Dynamic Time Warp method.

The Software Development Environment of the Flying Test-bed ATTAS

The German Aerospace Center (DLR) operates the flying test-bed ATTAS (Advanced Technologies Testing Aircraft System). ATTAS is based on a VFW 614, a 44-passengers civil transport aircraft, which was modified according to DLR-formulated specifications to achieve fly-by-wire and in-flight simulation capability. Its duplex flight control system consists of a consolidated fly-by-wire/fly-by-light flight control system and a free programmable experiment computer. The fly-by-wire/fly-by-light flight control system and the nonlinear in-flight simulation architecture were designed and developed at the Institute of Flight Systems. To integrate experiments into ATTAS the experimenter can use flexible hardand software alternatives. By using the hardware-variant an external experiment system can connect via a TCP/IP interface and an experiment-LAN to the ATTAS experiment computer. If the alternative software-variant is applied, the software of the experimenter has to be integrated into the ATTAS experiment computer. At present this is the most commonly used method. To accomplish this process of implementation as easy and comfortable as possible for all parties concerned, a special ATTAS software development environment was designed. This environment is based on pure source code files and problem-oriented development tools with automatic program code generation capability to convert the developed algorithm into a programming language. For the design of flight control systems and in-flight simulation applications MATLAB/SIMULINK with an extensively modified Real-Time Workshop is used as standard tool. Furthermore, this development environment contains a software configuration management system for the administration of all required source files. At the end of the article exemplary applications of the software development environment are described.

In-Flight Simulation in Support of an Aircraft Certification Process

More than other techniques, in-flight simulation is able to strengthen the pilots’ confidence into predicted flying qualities and system capabilities of a new aircraft. Furthermore, the simulation of potential system failures and malfunctions makes a valuable contribution with regard to the entire certification process. In 2002 the flying test-bed ATTAS (Advanced Technologies Testing Aircraft System) of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) was successfully used as an in-flight simulator for a new shortand intermediate-range commercial aircraft. This paper presents a survey upon the used facilities and applied methods concerning the in-flight simulation technique in the course of the flight test campaign. The sophisticated architecture of the experimental software system with its modular and flexible character is described. Selected flight test results which reveal the high in-flight simulation fidelity are presented and briefly discussed.

NIAG DVE flight test results of LiDAR based DVE support systems

The paper discusses recent results of flight tests performed during the NIAG DVE flight test campaign in Manching, Germany and Alpnach, Switzerland in February 2017. The Hensoldt DVE system SFERION was mounted on two platforms in two different configurations. The first platform was a Swiss Airforce EC635 on which SFERION was mounted with the SferiSense 500 LiDAR. SFERION displayed 3D conformal symbology for in-flight and landing support purposes. The second platform was the German DLR owned and operated EC135 ACT/FHS test helicopter. There a system using SferiSense 300 LiDAR data supported the pilot during the final approach to a hover point by providing flight path monitoring, guidance and updating. In both systems the information was displayed on head-tracked helmet mounted displays (HMDs). Specific LiDAR performance in the encountered real-life DVE conditions is discussed. A number of pilots flew the respective systems and results of pilot assessments on workload and capabilities as well as conclusions for the SFERION system are discussed.