Modification of the pilot behavior structural model and its application to the task of selecting the characteristics and type of inceptors

Aeronautical and Space-Rocket Engineering


DOI: 10.34759/vst-2023-1-167-179

Аuthors

Efremov A. V.*, Efremov E. V.

Moscow Aviation Institute (National Research University), 4, Volokolamskoe shosse, Moscow, А-80, GSP-3, 125993, Russia

*e-mail: pvl@mai.ru

Abstract

The present paper is devoted to the modification of the structural model of pilot behavior, which allows to evaluate the influence of the characteristics and type of inceptor on the properties of the pilot-aircraft system. To this purpose, a series of experiments was performed employing MAI’s ground-based simulator to determine the regularities of the pilot-aircraft system when using a center and side stick, different types of control signals sent to the flight control system (proportional to the displacement and proportional to the forces applied), as well as different characteristics of the inceptor (stiffness and damping). Two configurations from the HAVE PIO database were selected as the controlled element dynamics, one corresponding to Level I flying qualities, the other corresponding to Level III. In the experiments, the operators performed a compensatory pitch angle tracking task.

Studies have shown that in terms of piloting accuracy, the optimum value of center stick stiffness for both types of control signals and controlled element dynamics corre-sponds to 10 N/cm. With a side stick, the optimum stiffness takes the value 20 N/cm. In all cases considered, the best piloting accuracy is achieved with minimal damping.

Studies have also shown that the piloting accuracy for a Level I flying qualities configuration is 1.5 and 1.6 times better when using a center and side stick, respectively, com-pared to displacement sensing control in a Level I configuration. For a Level III configuration, this transition is accompanied by an improvement in accuracy by 1.25 and 1.3 times. In addition to piloting accuracy, force sensing control reduces the equivalent phase delay introduced by the pilot and improves other parameters of the pilot-aircraft sys-tem.

Overall, the transition from a traditional DSC-type center stick to a FSC-type side stick results in a 2.3-fold improvement in piloting accuracy when controlling configurations which belong to the first level of flying qualities and a 1.9-fold im-provement when controlling configurations which belong to the third level.

Based on the results obtained, a modification of the structural model of pilot behavior was proposed. This model takes into account the models of visual cue perception and the neuromuscular system, inceptor dynamics, correction of information received from proprioceptive feedback which closes the «neuromuscular system + inceptor» system. When a command signal is proportional to the displacement, the inceptor model is in the direct loop of this system, and when the pilot’s force input is used as such a signal, the inceptor model moves into the feedback loop. Different models and parameters of neuromuscular dynamics are used in the study of the effects of the center and side stick. In addition, the model takes into account noise in the perception of visual and kinesthetic information. The spectral density of the latter is proportional to the variance of inceptor displacement. Due to the results of experimental studies having shown that the noise components of signals are inversely proportional to the stiffness and directly proportional to the damping, the parameters of inceptor stiffness and damping are introduced into the model of this spectral density.

The parameters determining the correction of visual and proprioceptive cues are chosen by minimizing a functional consisting of the sum of the error signal variance and a summand proportional to the variance of the forces applied to the inceptor and its stiffness. This summand was added to match the optimal values of stiffness obtained in experiments and in mathematical modeling.

The use of the proposed model makes it possible to obtain results close to the results of experimental studies, as well as to assess the influence of inceptor characteristics, inceptor type, and the type of control signal on the characteristics of the pilot-aircraft system.

Keywords:

pilot-aircraft system, structural model of pilot behavior, inceptor, model of neuromuscular system

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