World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology

International Journal of Mechanical, Aerospace, Industrial, Mechatronic and Manufacturing Engineering Vol:3, No:12, 2009

Development of a Novel Low-Cost Flight

Simulator for Pilot Training
Hongbin Gu, Dongsu Wu, and Hui Liu

International Science Index, Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Vol:3, No:12, 2009 waset.org/Publication/12481

AbstractA novel low-cost flight simulator with the development

goals cost effectiveness and high performance has been realized for
meeting the huge pilot training needs of airlines. The simulator
consists of an aircraft dynamics model, a sophisticated designed
low-profile electrical driven motion system with a subsided cabin, a
mixed reality based semi-virtual cockpit system, a control loading
system and some other subsystems. It shows its advantages over
traditional flight simulator by its features achieved with open
architecture, software solutions and low-cost hardware.

hydraulic system always brings. And a sophisticated designed

low-profile 6-DOF motion platform can make the whole
simulator system accommodate in common office room, while
the traditional flight simulator need a dedicated three storeys
high building to place. Furthermore, many functions which
generally fulfilled by hardware modules in traditional flight
simulator are partially substituted by well designed software
modules. This measure improves reliability and maintainability
of the complex simulator system and reduces a lot of
construction costs.

Keywords Flight simulator, mixed reality, motion system,

control loading system.
I. INTRODUCTION

HE use of flight simulators for initial and recurrent pilot

training by major airlines is universal, and its effectiveness
is well recognized. However, the availability of flight simulator
resources is too limited to meet huge training needs of all
airlines due to high purchase cost, deployment cost and per
hour usage cost of traditional flight simulator. Airlines are
seeking affordable flight simulators [1], which can cover
certain training tasks, to be a kind of substitution for traditional
flight simulators. To meet these demands, some efforts have
been made [2-4] to develop low cost flight simulator and
similar training devices.
Recently a novel simulator named light flight simulator
(Fig.1) is developed by our laboratory. The design philosophy
of the novel flight simulator is quite different from that of the
traditional flight simulator. To reduce its cost and weight,
simulation devices of light flight simulator are heavily
simplified by adopting several new technologies. The mixed
reality technology [5] is used to construct a semi-virtual cockpit
system which has realistic tactile feeling by equipment of true
instruments, and also realistic stereo visual feeling by computer
synthetic scenery and helmet monitors. That will tremendously
reduce the overall weight, volume and cost of the visual system
and simplify the simulator cockpit design. Purely electrical
driven technology is widely applied in the motion system and
the control loading system, which reduces the cost and
eliminates the noise and pollution problem that conventional
Hongbin Gu is with College of Civil Aviation, Nanjing University of
Aeronautics and Astronautics, 210016, China.
Dongsu Wu is with College of Civil Aviation, Nanjing University of
Aeronautics and Astronautics, 210016, China(e-mail: [email protected]).
Hui Liu is with College of Civil Aviation, Nanjing University of
Aeronautics and Astronautics, 210016, China

International Scholarly and Scientific Research & Innovation 3(12) 2009

Fig. 1 The novel flight simulator

This paper will first describe the architecture of the novel

low-cost flight simulator, then discuss the design and specific
function of several main parts of the simulator including
aircraft dynamic model software, motion system, cockpit
system, control loading system, and etc.
II. ARCHITECTURE OF THE NOVEL FLIGHT SIMULATOR
The overall architecture of the novel low-cost flight
simulator is reported in fig.2. The core function of flight
simulator is to provide realistic feelings including visual, tactile,
force, auditory and vestibular feelings for trainees, so structure
of the simulator can also be expressed by this principle: The
visual subsystem provides visual cue. The cockpit subsystem
including all instruments provides tactile cue. The control
loading subsystem provides force feedback. The motion
subsystem provides vestibular cue. The acoustic subsystem
provides auditory cue. The communication subsystem connects
all the system while the control console is the visual output of
the status of the simulator. And the aircraft dynamic model
drives all other subsystems and connects them.

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International Science Index, Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Vol:3, No:12, 2009 waset.org/Publication/12481

World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology

International Journal of Mechanical, Aerospace, Industrial, Mechatronic and Manufacturing Engineering Vol:3, No:12, 2009

Fig. 2 The architecture of the novel flight simulator

III. AIRCRAFT DYNAMICS MATHEMATICAL MODEL

An important component of the simulators software is the
aircraft dynamics mathematical model, which can calculate the
aircrafts response to control inputs at various speeds and
orientations. Then the output signal is transmitted to other
subsystems to generate visual scenery, sound, motion and force
feedback feeling for trainees. The aircraft dynamics model
involves the principles of mathematical modeling of the
aerodynamic, flight control, propulsion, ground handling and
environmental characteristics of the aircraft [6]. The simulation
of a complete mission, however, from take-off to landing,
needs the nonlinear equations of motion, covering the full flight
envelope.
The design and development of a full flight dynamics engine
needs a flight test or purchasing a data package, which is
temporarily unavailable for us. Therefore it is of critical
importance to select an existing set of products which would
provides the features we want. Several viable candidates
including JSBSim[7], LaRCSim, X-Plane and Microsoft Flight
Simulator are considered. Finally we choose JSBSim as our
flight dynamics engine for the following three reasons: (1) it is
an open-source software, which can lower the overall cost of
the flight simulator; (2) it is highly configurable and can be
easily reconfigured by a XML configure file as a different
aircraft type; (3) it can be modified to meet our specific demand
and can be added some special effects such as turbulences, for
the reason that the whole source code is totally open.
IV. MOTION SYSTEM
As an important element of a flight simulator, the motion
system serves to simulate the motion of aircraft and provide the
pilot with realistic vestibular feelings and a part of tactile
feelings. According to the FAA regulations, any device called
flight simulator must have at least one motion system,
otherwise it can only be termed a flight training device [8].
From fig.2, we can see that motion system consists of motion
platform, electrical actuation module, motion transformation
algorithm, motion controller, washout filter and motion

International Scholarly and Scientific Research & Innovation 3(12) 2009

protection module. From the point of pilot, motion simulation

can be regarded as a close-loop process. The pilot can feel the
status of aircraft by platform motion and force feedback by
control loading system, thus provides corresponding control
command input. Then the aircraft dynamics mathematical
model can compute reference motion of aircraft according to
varying control input. Due to the limit workspace of motion
platform, the reference motion can not drive the motion
platform directly. It needs an intermediate algorithm called
washout filter [9] to transform the aircraft reference motion
signal to the platform reference motion signal. The washout
filter divides the aircraft motion signal into two parts by making
use of the characteristics of human vestibular feeling. One part,
which is on high frequency domain, can drive platform directly
and provide transient motion feeling for pilot. The other part on
low frequency domain needs to be simulated by so-called
platform-tilt technique, which makes use of gravity component
to simulate the continuous acceleration and generates platform
reference motion signal. Next a motion transform algorithm
needs to be applied to transform platform reference motion
signal from operational space to joint space. The motion
protection module is then in operation to limit and damp the
excessive reference link motion. And then the motion
controller is responsible for tracking the reference link motion
signal via real-time feedback control. Finally control signal is
sent to electrical actuation module six high-power torque
motors to drive the whole motion platform.

Fig. 3 The low-profile motion platform with subsided cabin

The motion platform in flight simulator is often constituted

of parallel mechanisms due to the requirements of bearing
heavy loads and performing flexible movements. Among
parallel platforms, six-DOF Stewart platforms gain most
popularity in medium- and light-load situations. The traditional
design solution of motion platform is to put all devices and
cockpit into a cabin, and then the cabin is placed above the
movable platform. This kind of design scheme has simple
structure and is adopted by most of flight simulator. But the
shortcoming of this scheme is also obvious. The whole
simulator system is very high and it needs a dedicated three
storeys high building to place. The safety problem also needs to
pay more attention for such big equipment. Considering the

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World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology

International Journal of Mechanical, Aerospace, Industrial, Mechatronic and Manufacturing Engineering Vol:3, No:12, 2009

International Science Index, Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Vol:3, No:12, 2009 waset.org/Publication/12481

above reasons, we design a low-profile motion platform (fig.3),

which puts the cockpit below the movable platform. This
scheme lowers the height of the whole system and the simulator
can be disposed in the common office buildings and is safer to
operate due to its lower gravity center. Although there are so
many advantages, the special design scheme may also cause
some problems such as workspace shrinkage of motion
platform, which will affect the design of washout filter and
motion protection module.

Fig.4 Required workspace must locate in the scope of reachable

workspace

The parameters of washout filter have to be matched with

dynamical performance and workspace of the motion platform.
Otherwise, the motion reference signal output from washout
filter may exceed the reachable space and make the movable
parts reach the physical limit, and thus cause the interruption of
simulation process. So first we compute the reachable
workspace according to kinematic parameters and structure of
motion platform. And then we compute the required workspace,
which is determined by both aircraft dynamics mathematical
model and washout filter. The design demand of motion
platform is that the required workspace must locate in the scope
of reachable workspace (fig.4). Because the mathematical
model will not change as soon as we determine the aircraft type,
the required workspace is only related to parameters of the
washout filter. Several classical maneuver tasks are chosen for
getting the required platform motion envelope. Through
iterative optimizations, finally we get the optimized washout
filter which can maximally exploit potentialities of the
low-profile motion platform.
As to motion protection module, the traditional Stewart
platform only needs to consider the length limit of links. The
interference problem of links can always be avoided through
elaborate structure design. But for our low-profile motion
platform, interference between subsided cabin and links is a
serious problem to be considered. We developed a virtual
spring algorithm which exerts a virtual spring force to subsided
cabin if cabin and links is getting too close.

International Scholarly and Scientific Research & Innovation 3(12) 2009

V. SEMI-VIRTUAL COCKPIT SYSTEM

The biggest difference between our novel flight simulator
and traditional flight simulator is the design philosophy of
cockpit system. The cockpit of traditional flight simulator is
almost a replication of true cockpit and generally has a
wide-view projection system to generate high quality virtual
out-of-window scenery. This kind of cockpit system has high
fidelity and trainees do not have to wear any accessories during
training. But the wide-view projection system is expensive and
huge. And the simulated cockpit also needs a lot of money to
build and can only be corresponding to one kind of aircraft.
In some of the military flight simulators, there is another
cockpit system called virtual cockpit [8]. Virtual reality (VR)
technology simplifies the design of the whole cockpit system
and visual system. Helmet monitor is adopted to provide both
out-of-window and inner cockpit scenery including appearance
of all instruments. Data glove and position tracker are used to
track the hand motion and then computer generated 3D hand
model can be provided as visual indication for trainees. Virtual
cockpit is flexible enough and can be easily reconfigured to a
different aircraft type. And its building cost is significantly
reduced for the reason that many functions can be realized by
sophisticated designed software instead of expensive hardware.
But due to the cumbersome of data glove, the trainees may feel
uncomfortable to operate instruments in cockpit. That will
reduce the immersion feeling of trainees.

Fig. 5 The inner cockpit and out-of-window virtual scenery

To overcome above shortcomings, we improve the design of

virtual cockpit with mixed reality technology. Two cameras,
mounted on the helmet near the trainees eyes, are used to
capture the images of hand manipulation. Then the hand images,
extracted with skin color cue, are merged into the virtual
scenery which is displayed on the helmets monitors. This kind
of design scheme does not need data gloves any longer and can
eliminate the uncomfortable and intrusive feeling. Trainees can
see their real hands and manipulate instruments freely. Due to
its feather of merging real-world hand and virtual scenery, we
call this scheme semi-virtual cockpit against virtual cockpit
concept with totally virtual hand and scenery. It perfectly
combines realistic feeling of traditional cockpit and low-cost
design philosophy of virtual cockpit.

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International Journal of Mechanical, Aerospace, Industrial, Mechatronic and Manufacturing Engineering Vol:3, No:12, 2009

International Science Index, Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Vol:3, No:12, 2009 waset.org/Publication/12481

VI. CONTROL LOADING SYSTEM

When the pilot initiates a control input in a real aircraft, the
aircrafts control structures always provide a counterforce as
the control mechanics carry out that input. A flight simulator
requires responding to pilot control inputs in a manner closely
comparable to the aircraft being simulated. Control loading
system is this kind of subsystem fulfilling the task. It recreates
the control feedback loop necessary for the simulation of
primary flight controls such as the yoke and rudders.
In traditional flight simulator, hydraulic control systems are
utilized to produce proper forces on pilot control systems [10].
But hydraulic systems may be encounter system failures such
as hydraulic leaks. And its building and maintenance cost is
relatively high. So in our low-cost flight simulator, an electrical
driven control loading system is designed to provide counter
forces to pilot control inputs. The control loading is simulated
by servo motor systems. Position sensors, used to detect
displacement of the controls, are needed because the effect of
control displacement differs depending upon the airspeed of the
aircraft. And force sensors, used to measure actual force that
servo systems exert, provide force errors feedback between
reference control forces and actual forces. Servo motors are
responsible for tracking reference control forces which should
feedback to pilots. Then the force tracking process is
closed-loop controlled by computer. The whole electrical
driven control loading system has much lower cost and more
flexibility than the traditional hydraulic system.

dynamics mathematical model, is 60Hz. Consider the

characteristics of human vision, the simulators visual system is
downsampled to 30Hz. The motion system needs to stabilize
the whole control system, so it runs on a real-time OS layer
with a high frame rate of 1KHz. The frame rate of other systems
is same as the core frame rate.
The control console controls the whole simulation process
including initializing subsystems, system startup and run-time
management. Another function of the control console is to
provide visual indication of simulators status. Fig.7 is a
screenshot of the control console software.

Fig. 7 Screenshot of the control consoles GUI

VIII. CONCLUSION
A novel flight simulator with the development goals cost
effectiveness and high performance has been realized. It shows
its advantages over traditional flight simulator by its features
achieved with open architecture, software solutions and
low-cost hardware. Starting from general architecture of this
complex equipment, all the various subsystem have been
analyzed and described, with particular emphasis on the new
technologies and novel design solutions which aim to reduce
the complexity and cost of the whole system.
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Fig. 6 Real cockpit with control loading system

[2]

VII. OTHER SUBSYSTEMS

Other subsystems including acoustic system, communication
system and control console.
The acoustic system includes sound database module, sound
generation module and sound display module. The sound
database module has all the sources of engine sounds, tire
sounds, wind noise and other background sounds. The sound
generation module is realized with an open-source 3D sound
library and synchronized with visual scenery.
The communication system connects all the other
subsystems with UDP protocol and manages the frame rate of
the whole system. The core frame rate, dominated by aircraft

International Scholarly and Scientific Research & Innovation 3(12) 2009

[3]

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World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology

International Journal of Mechanical, Aerospace, Industrial, Mechatronic and Manufacturing Engineering Vol:3, No:12, 2009

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