Grob G-104 Speed Astir IIB fuselage

Posted on 2014/01/23
Grob G-104 Speed Astir IIB

Grob G-104 Speed Astir IIB

A very nice gentleman has donated the intact fuselage from a G104 sailplane damaged in an off airport landing. Over the next year I will be porting the simulator functionality I have developed (and will continue to develop) out of the steel tube frame mockup and into the actual cockpit. Thanks to his generosity research that was planned as post-doctoral research can now be part of my dissertation, and allow for a much more realistic simulator platform.

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Flexiforce Sensors

Posted on 2014/01/14
Flexiforce Sensors

Flexiforce Sensors

One data point I would like to gather on pilot affect/performance is the amount of force applied by the pilot to control during flight. This would involve measuring how the pilot grip strength on controls such as a joystick or air brake handle varies over time, or how hard the pilot pushes on rudder pedals.

A likely candidate for these measurements are piezoresistive Flexiforce sensors from Tekscan, a spin-off of research by the MIT media lab in Affective Computing. These are this, flexible circuits that change resistance based on the amount of force applied to them.

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Head Tracking Integrated

Posted on 2014/01/06

I’ve added head tracking using TrackIR. This will allow the simulator pilot to change their view without using a secondary control (such as a keyboard or joystick). It took a bit of tweaking to get the tracking calibrated and the speed and smoothness settings correct. Here’s a quick demonstration video. Note that the instrument panel is not placed in the optimal position. I am moving it to an adjustable mount that I am in the process of fabricating.

Recorded with Google Glass
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Simulator Multi Monitor Flight Test

Posted on 2014/01/04

A short 3 minute video of takeoff (tow) to pattern altitude and a quick landing to demonstrate multi monitor support and instrument panel integration.

Recorded with Google Glass
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Simulator Progress – Multi Monitor

Posted on 2014/01/04

Work continues on my simulator. I now have a fully functioning control panel working with software wrappers that allow it to integrate with multiple flight simulations. Other additions include 3 front speaker mounts fabricated from Vex structural hardware to hang the speakers below the displays.

Now I can start integration with Glass for the affective computing/augmented reality portion of my research!

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