Development of a Virtual Reality Flight Simulator to Assist in the Education of Aircraft Design Engineers

Abstract

The ongoing development of a Stewart platform-based flight simulator that incorporates virtual reality has provided ample opportunities for exciting project-based learning for undergraduate engineering students at Oral Roberts University. Multiple capstone design project teams have contributed to the research and development effort and benefitted from the multi-disciplinary systems engineering environment. The current senior project team consists of five students from the mechanical, electrical and computer engineering concentrations working to provide design improvements/refinements, as well as the development and execution of a testing and validation plan for all aspects of the system. The Stewart platform provides full six-degree-of-freedom motion to the suspended pilot seat through revolute joints in response to pilot inputs via a control yoke or joystick. The pilot senses this simulated aircraft motion while enjoying a realistic virtual reality flight experience via a VIVE headset that immerses the student in a cockpit with vivid scenery outside the window. Various aircraft options are possible, including uniquely designed custom aircraft via the PlaneMaker feature of the X-Plane 11 flight simulation software. PlaneMaker will allow engineering students in the Aircraft Design course to create original aircraft designs by inputting the necessary parameters into PlaneMaker and then virtually test-flying their aircraft in X-plane 11, giving the students quicker flight performance data for iterative designs. Providing students with timely and exciting feedback on their original aircraft designs is anticipated to be highly motivating to the engineering students. In addition, the simulator will be housed in the Virtual Reality Center at the university so that local K-12 students can experience the wonder of flight, as well as some of the engineering aspects of aircraft design. Therefore, the simulator and its interfaces must be engineered to be used as an effective flight-simulator and include the necessary safety parameters, yet simple enough for a non-expert to operate. One goal of this project is that through the experience of using the flight-simulator, K-12 students will be more motivated to pursue careers in engineering disciplines. Although nearly complete, there are a few aspects of the system that need further engineering analysis and development. Finite element analysis will be applied to the mechanical linkages in order to firmly establish appropriate factors of safety for all mechanical elements. The development of a more realistic control yoke to receive pilot inputs is also being researched and considered. In addition, the computer interfaces for proper signal communications requires additional work. The primary focus of this final phase is the development and execution of a test and validation plan to ensure that the system is providing a reasonably accurate simulation of the actual flight experience. This will require subsystem testing as well as integrated systems testing to faithfully reproduce vehicular dynamics for a variety of aircraft types.