Control Room Training for the Hyper-X Program Utilizing Aircraft Simulation

Abstract

The NASA Dryden Flight Research Center flew two Hyper-X Research Vehicles and achieved hypersonic speeds over the Pacific Ocean in March and November 2004. To train the flight and mission control room crew, the NASA Dryden simulation capability was utilized to generate telemetry and radar data, which was used in nominal and emergency mission scenarios. During these control room training sessions, personnel were able to evaluate and refine data displays, flight cards, mission parameter allowable limits, and emergency procedure checklists. Practice in the mission control room ensured that all primary and backup Hyper-X staff were familiar with the nominal mission and knew how to respond to anomalous conditions quickly and successfully. This paper describes the technology in the simulation environment and the mission control center, the need for and benefit of control room training, and the rationale and results of specific scenarios unique to the Hyper-X research missions. Nomenclature

Hardware-in-the-loop Simulation Design for Evaluation of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Control Systems

“…The simulations in these larger research projects are generally ill-suited for application to small-scale UAV efforts because of resource constraints. 6 On the other end of the spectrum are the relatively common UAV research efforts at universities; however, descriptions of those simulations tend to focus on high level architecture and are short on detail. [7][8][9] The three main steps in this development of the hardware-in-the-loop (HITL) simulation and basic control laws are: 1) design and code the software drivers and other tools that interface the control system with the external, real world sensors and actuators; 2) design the simulations that will test the control system and implement that design in a Simulink † simulation of the nonlinear dynamics, a Simulink simulation of the linear dynamics (which is used to develop the control system), and the final simulation that runs directly on the avionics computer; and 3) develop the control system and associated components, including the reference trajectory generator, sensor filters, and sensor models, and test them in the full nonlinear simulation based in the avionics computer.…”