Flight Simulator Benchmarking

Abstract

This thesis describes an experiment investigating the effects of motion filter order on human manual control tracking behavior and performance. The experiment was performed on two simulators: the Vertical Motion Simulator at NASA Ames Research Center and the SIMONA Research Simulator at Delft University of Technology. Eighteen pilots in the Vertical Motion Simulator and twenty pilots in the SIMONA Research Simulator performed the experiment with a full factorial variation of three motion filter orders and two motion filter frequencies, in addition to a reference no-motion and full-motion condition. Motion shaping filters derived from Objective Motion Cueing Test measurements on the Vertical Motion Simulator were included in the SIMONA Research Simulator motion logic to match the motion cues between both simulators. Furthermore, the side sticks were set to matching characteristics and the visual cues were matched in terms of time delay, graphics size and screen characteristics. With increased motion filter order, pilots showed worse performance and a lowered contribution of motion feedback in their control strategy. Increasing the motion filter break frequency had similar effects, which were stronger than the effects of increasing the motion filter order, for the eight experimental conditions that were considered in this experiment. For the same motion condition the simulators showed offsets in the results. However, the trends between the motion conditions were similar, leading
to the conclusion that for simulator comparisons relative trends are easier to replicate between simulators than absolute results within one condition.