A Cybernetic Approach to Assess Simulator Fidelity: Looking back and looking forward

This paper describes some of the main results of the VIDI project (2006-2012) which aimed to assess flight simulator fidelity through a model-based, cybernetic approach. In a number of experiments conducted in the SIMONA research simulator and in real-flight, we determined multimodal visual-vestibular pilot control models. Taking the in-flight pilot models as a baseline we were able to obtain an objective quantification of behavioral discrepancies measured in the simulator, for a large range of simulator motion cueing settings. Even though a perfect match is not evident from our experiments, it is found that simulator motion cueing best approximating the motion cues pilots are subjected to in real flight also induces tracking behavior that best matches in-flight measurements. Future work should aim at developing pilot models for more realistic flight tasks, requiring a leap forward in cybernetics theory, and focus on quantifying the effectiveness of simulator training to further optimize training programs and apparatus.

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