GRACE - a Versatile Simulator Architecture Making Simulation of Multiple Complex Aircraft Simple

Abstract

Versatility is an essential asset of any research flight simulator but at the same time a high level of realism is needed to create the right experimental environment. How can a research flight simulator combine both efficiently and become the ultimate research platform? The answer to this question lies in the design of the architecture of the research flight simulator and the software techniques used to enhance its versatility. Each research project poses its specific requirements on the research flight simulator. Different projects require different aircraft types to address specific operational issues. To cope with these ever changing requirements a research flight simulator must be modular not only in software but also in hardware. Flight training simulators need a high level of realism because it's essential for the quality of flight training to create a cockpit environment that closely matches the real live cockpit. For a research flight simulator the focus of attention is aimed at the research objective and the changes it brings to the flight deck. In order to produce a high level of realism for a number of aircraft types, as in the case of a research flight simulator, the simulator must be reconfigurable to represent these aircraft types. A cost-efficient solution is one cockpit which can be reconfigured to represent different aircraft types by exchanging hardware components. To combine both versatility and a high level of realism in a research flight simulator a special versatile modular architecture is needed that facilitates both. The National Aerospace Laboratory (NLR) has developed such an architecture and has implemented this architecture with the construction of its new research flight simulator called Generic Research Aircraft Cockpit Environment (GRACE). Both the hardware and the software used for GRACE are constructed to fit in this versatile modular structure. To make it easy to exchange components of the simulator the interfaces between the components must be designed to be generic. Generic in this sense means that the interfaces can support the superset of signals that any module may use. Special attention is needed to control the configuration of the simulator. Flexible configuration of the communication interfaces is the key to easy introduction of new and research specific modules to the architecture. Another technique applied to increase versatility is the use of adaptive software modules. The described versatile modular architecture and all the applied techniques to enhance this architecture are successfully demonstrated for the first time ever in the GRACE research flight simulator. In the most recent research projects GRACE was operated in four different aircraft configurations consisting of Fokker F100, Boeing B747400, Airbus A320 and A330. A lot of research specific software and hardware was integrated into GRACE with low effort and in a short time span. Its unique architecture has made GRACE the most versatile research flight simulator in the world today.