Peter Chudy

Hil simulation of a light aircraft flight control system

This paper presents the hardware-in-the-loop simulations of a hybrid flight control system for a light aircraft consisting of mechanical, electromechanical and digital components. The simulation was performed at a light aircraft simulation lab SimStar at Brno University of Technology. The aim was the validation and verification of the operational suitability of the flight control systems peripherals - electromechanical actuators, autopilot mode selection panel and a primary flight display. The investigated peripheral devices were connected to SimStars network using CANaero communication protocol. The simulations were focused on the real time automatic flight control modes operational scenarios.

Analysis of Interactions between Pilot-Operator and Advanced Flight Control System

This work discusses the application of techniques serving the purpose of prediction and detection of unfavorable man-machine interactions. Prediction criteria of Pilot Induced Oscillations (PIO) were applied during design process of experimental multi-modal fly-by-wire control system for small light aircraft. Estimated PIO susceptibility was further verified during real-time simulations and flight tests. The verification process included subjective pilot/operator expert opinions and the results obtained from the automatic detectors, used for the PIO identification in long sets of recorded data. The general idea of the detection algorithms is based on the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT). These are being presented in this paper in a form of detection applications along with the results of the flight experiments.

Intuitive flight display for light aircraft.

Responsible piloting requires constant mental effort to mon itor the aircraft’s systems, conduct flight data management and, in extreme cases, to d evelop and execute a correction plan within the constrains of limited time. This is in direct contradiction with human ability to successfully solve simultaneous data management tasks while under stress. Modern light aircraft are designed to support a wide community of pilots with different levels of piloting skills and personal preferences. The SimStar light aircraft fl ight simulator with its intuitive flight display was designed to improve situational aw areness and to support pilot decision making processes. Initial testing of SimStar and its ad vanced flight display system was performed on the cockpit section of an Evektor SportStar, a popular light aircraft.

Affordable Light Aircraft Flight Simulators

Two designs of a low-cost flight simulator for research, development and training purposes are being presented in this paper. The first simulator has been designed and built at the Brno University of Technology, Faculty of Informati on Technologies. This simulator is based on a cockpit of a popular Evektor SportStar light sp ort aircraft. SportStar was the first Light Sport Aircraft to receive the Federal Aviation Admin istration airworthiness certificate. Due to Evektor’s strong tradition in the design and manufacturing of light and general aviation aircraft, the SportStar represents a successful conceptual evolution that is increasingly gaining popularity among the flying public w orldwide. In contrast to the original aircraft the simulator’s cockpit is equipped with an experimental dual 12” touch screen flight data visualization system. The flight simul ator designed at Rzeszow University of Technology, Department of Avionics and Control, is ba sed on the cabin of the M-15 aircraft. The M-15 was a unique “crop duster” jet plane bui lt in Poland at the beginning of the 1980’s. One cabin of this aircraft type has been adopted for didactical and demonstration purposes in the 1990’s. Functionality of this device has been extended in last years by adding a visualization system, real-time simulation environme nt and an electronic representation of flight instruments. Both simulators support two operati onal modes. The first mode uses a model of the flight dynamics delivered from an external, commercial or open-source software. The second mode supports custom aircraft models and an environment dynamics run in a selected real-time simulation. Open and modular archit ecture of simulators allows for a rapid prototyping of new cockpit layouts, the desig n of intuitive flight control systems and user interfaces for the light and ultra-light aircraft.

TECS/THCS based flight control system for general aviation

This paper discusses the implementation of TECS and THCS based flight controller for a low-end general aviation application. TECS is based on en ergy distribution logic, whereas THCS uses lateral/directional criteria for aircraft control. TECS /THCS control system was subjected to simulations. The advantage of the TECS over cl assical control law designs proved to be in excellent performance and moderate complexity o f the resulting controller structure. TECS/THCS’s expected ability to support proven analytical tools compatible with the airworthiness certification procedure makes it an ideal can didate for implementation on board of a General Aviation aircraft.

General aviation digital autopilot design based on LQR/LQG control strategy

The paper introduces a description of a Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR) / Linear Quadratic Gaussian (LQG) controller design along with related basic theory. The LQR/LQG controller of a digital autopilot is subjected to performance evaluation tests, which consider various performance and stability requirements issued by the regulatory agencies. The designs robustness is tested on a General Aviation aircraft simulation model.

Prototyping framework for digital flight control systems

Hardware-in-the-loop simulations are indisputably perceived as an integral part of the avionics design and development process. This paper describes a prototyping framework, which has been employed to develop a digital autopilot for a light sport aircraft. Related simulation processes have been performed on two different ground-testing levels. The first level consisted of a laboratory grade development and testing phase, which supported the initial functional estimate of the designed and implemented autopilot features. The subsequent testing level already included the embedded autopilot system installation on board of the test aircraft. System prototyping was performed at the light aircraft simulation lab SimStar at the Brno University of Technology. Additional ground simulations were employed to verify and ground test the operational suitability of the designed autopilot flight control system elements. The implemented hardware units were connected into the simulation network using the CANaerospace communication protocol. Simulations focused on the real time automatic flight modes operational scenarios and confirmed the anticipated performance of the autopilot design features.

Evolution assisted flight control system design

An evolution driven controller design approach has been applied to a rigid-body aircraft model of a light sport aircraft. The model comprises inertial, aerodynamic and flight dynamics related elements and the controller architecture is based on Classical Control Theory. The evolution driven concept plays a significant role in the optimization of the proposed controller structure by providing tuned controller parameters, which meet the designed fitness function criteria imposed through the optimization problem formulation. The proposed fitness function combines significant controller stability evaluation conditions into a single abstraction. The use of a robust optimization framework based on the genetic algorithms has allowed the suggested form of multi-criteria optimization definition. The suitability of the evolutionary optimization has been successfully tested on a model with rigid-body aircraft dynamics. Time-domain simulation results have shown the compliance of the tuned controller performance with its anticipated behavior.