US 4,398,889 A · Flight simulator

Abstract

A flight simulating system is provided with a manually operated control member connected to a servomechanism which responds to manual input by the control member and reacts to provide realistic feedback to the control member in accord with simulated flight conditions. For this purpose, a combining circuit, a dividing circuit and two integrator circuits are provided in series. The combining circuit has an input which represents manual input force to the control member and another input from the flight-simulating computer which represents simulated internal forces acting on the controlled member and the dividing circuit divides the output of the combining circuit by a value representing the mass of the control member to produce a control member acceleration-related signal. This acceleration-related signal is integrated twice to produce, respectively, a control member velocity-related signal and a control member position-related signal. These various signals are fed back to the servomechanism to provide a response which produces the correct "feel" at the control member for the flight condition under simulation.

Claims14

Dependent claims

A flight simulator comprising:

a flight-simulation computer,
at least one control-element,
servo-means coupled with the or each element and including an amplifier, said computer being coupled with the amplifier through an electric analog representing the relevant mechanical properties of the element concerned, characterized in that the electric analog comprises:
a divider for dividing its input signal by a value proportional to the desired mass of the element, the output of said divider being coupled with a third input of said amplifier,
a first integrator connected to the output of the divider, and
a second integrator connected to the output of the first integrator, the output of said second integrator being coupled with the input of the amplifier.

3 more elements

In a flight simulator system which includes a manually operated control member and a servo means connected thereto for acting and reacting on said control member to simulate response of a controlled member such as a control surface under simulated flight conditions, said servo means including a servo valve, the combination of:

amplifier means for controlling said servo valve in response to a plurality of inputs thereto;
computer means for producing flight simulating signals;
electrical analog means for producing output signals feeding said amplifier means, and including a combining circuit, a divider and first and second integrators, all in series, said combining circuit having an input from said computer means which represents simulated inertial forces acting on said controlled member and an input which represents manual input force applied to said control member, said divider dividing the output of said combining circuit by a value representing the mass of said control member to produce a control member acceleration-related signal applied to said first integrator whereby the output of said first integrator is a control member velocity-related signal and the output of said second integrator is a control member position-related signal, said acceleration-related signal and said velocity-related signal being connected as inputs to said amplifier means and said position-related signal being applied to said amplifier means as a control member position error signal.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Flight simulator

Life of this patent

Flight simulator

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims14