This approach, referred to as model following, results in very high fidelity emulation of complex flight control systems. The host computer specifies the control system model, controls the parameters of the model and monitors the status of the system through structured data packets. A set of host interface routines is provided for creating, modifying and interpreting these data packets, and communicating with the control loading system. The high performance floating point DSP runs at a minimum of 40 MHz and is capable of at least 40 MIPS performance. This level of performance provides the capability to simulate complex control systems at high iteration rates.
Load cells provide control force feedback.
The use of force feedback results in a more realistic compensation of trainer linkage characteristics such as friction and inertia than can be obtained through open loop control of forces. Incremental optical encoders provide precise resolution and low noise position feedback. High reliability and near-zero maintenance are results of our COTS electronics and optical encoder based design. Our object-oriented modeling provides the capability of implementing complex control system models including multiple degrees of freedom with minimal development effort. A simplified example of a longitudinal control system model is illustrated in Figure 2.