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Aerospace
Special Issues
Flight Simulation and Aircraft Autonomy
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Flight Simulation and Aircraft Autonomy

A special issue of Aerospace (ISSN 2226-4310). This special issue belongs to the section "Aeronautics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 January 2023) | Viewed by 16049

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Maxim Tyan

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Konkuk Aerospace Design-Airworthiness Institute (KADA), Konkuk University, Seoul 05029, Republic of Korea
Interests: aircraft design; flight simulation and control; urban air mobility; unmanned aerial vehicles; design optimization
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Flight simulation is one of the core disciplines in aerospace and aviation. From the days of early fliers, FS was mostly used as part of the pilot training system, as a design tool for dedicated flight controls, and as a design validation method in the late stages of the aircraft development process. With the recent development of autonomous robotic systems, increasing computational and data transfer capabilities, FS has once again gained popularity. The general principles of FS are preserved but the simulation environment, supporting analysis methods, validation methods, and application area have dramatically expanded and improved. Freely available and supported by community flight simulation and flight dynamics models (AirSim, JSBSim, Gazebo and others) and widely available in academia (MATLAB Simulink and other FS tools), they reduce the entry barrier to specialists from different fields, especially computer science. FS today runs faster, is more accurate, and is very flexible for integration. Research on robotic autonomy requires collaborative work of multidisciplinary specialists from aerospace, civil engineering, computer science, chemical engineering, and even non-technical disciplines. This Special Issue aims to collect publications on innovative research on the following topics, with a special focus on the autonomy technologies of aircraft.

  • Software-in-the-loop simulation
  • Hardware-in-the-loop simulation
  • Improving accuracy of FS
    • Construction and validation of simulation database (look-up-tables)
    • Calibration of simulation models using experimental data
    • Artificial intelligence and machine learning for FS
  • Simulation methods for novel types of aircraft and systems
    • eVTOL
    • Hydrogen powered aircraft
    • Distributed electric propulsion
    • Others
  • Simulation validation methods
  • Advanced flight control algorithms
  • Aircraft autonomy
    • Path and mission planning
    • UAV swarm
    • Situational awareness and decision making
    • Obstacle detection and avoidance
    • Artificial intelligence and machine learning
  • Applications of FS
    • Digital twin systems
    • Virtual certification
    • Pilot training
    • Traffic management

Prof. Dr. Maxim Tyan
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Aerospace is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

23 pages, 7819 KiB  
Article
Design and Experimental Study of a Novel Semi-Physical Unmanned-Aerial-Vehicle Simulation Platform for Optical-Flow-Based Navigation
by Zhonglin Lin, Weixiong Wang, Yufeng Li, Xinglong Zhang, Tianhong Zhang, Haitao Wang, Xianyu Wu and Feng Huang
Aerospace 2023, 10(2), 183; https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace10020183 - 15 Feb 2023
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2307
Abstract
In the process of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) visual-navigation-algorithm design and accuracy verification, the question of how to develop a high-precision and high-reliability semi-physical simulation platform has become a significant engineering problem. In this study, a new UAV semi-physical-simulation-platform architecture is proposed, which [...] Read more.
In the process of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) visual-navigation-algorithm design and accuracy verification, the question of how to develop a high-precision and high-reliability semi-physical simulation platform has become a significant engineering problem. In this study, a new UAV semi-physical-simulation-platform architecture is proposed, which includes a six-degree-of-freedom mechanical structure, a real-time control system and real-time animation-simulation software. The mechanical structure can realistically simulate the flight attitude of a UAV in a three-dimensional space of 4 × 2 × 1.4 m. Based on the designed mechanical structure and its dynamics, the control system and the UAV real-time flight-animation simulation were designed. Compared with the conventional simulation system, this system enables real-time flight-attitude simulation in a real physical environment and simultaneous flight-attitude simulation in virtual-animation space. The test results show that the repeated positioning accuracy of the three-axis rotary table reaches 0.006°, the repeated positioning accuracy of the three-axis translation table reaches 0.033 mm, and the dynamic-positioning accuracy reaches 0.04° and 0.4 mm, which meets the simulation requirements of high-precision visual UAV navigation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Flight Simulation and Aircraft Autonomy)
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14 pages, 2801 KiB  
Article
Dynamic Aircraft Wake Separation Based on Velocity Change
by Weijun Pan, Zirui Yin, Yuming Luo, Anding Wang and Yuanjing Huang
Aerospace 2022, 9(11), 633; https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace9110633 - 22 Oct 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2033
Abstract
Traditional research on static wake-vortex reduction usually considers only the influence of external environmental factors, while ignoring the dynamic change in an aircraft’s flight state. In order to solve this problem, this paper proposes a method to reduce separation using dynamic wake information [...] Read more.
Traditional research on static wake-vortex reduction usually considers only the influence of external environmental factors, while ignoring the dynamic change in an aircraft’s flight state. In order to solve this problem, this paper proposes a method to reduce separation using dynamic wake information based on changes in flight velocity. Firstly, relying on the wake-vortex generation and dissipation model, the initial circulations and dissipation parameters of the wake vortex at different aircraft velocities are calculated. Then, the complete evolution process of the wake vortex generated by different types of aircraft at different velocities is analyzed, and the evolution law of a wake vortex with changing velocity is obtained. Afterwards, according to the actual aerodynamic shape of CRJ-900, the aerodynamic model for CRJ-900 when it encounters a wake vortex is established. The situation of an CRJ-900 encountering a wake vortex under TBS is analyzed, which proves that TBS is safe and has a certain reduction potential. Then, taking the rolling moment coefficient as the safety index, the minimum safe separations at different velocities are calculated. Finally, a simulation for the separation reduction based on a dynamic wake vortex is carried out. Compared with the static wake-based separation, the dynamic wake-based separation technology can greatly reduce the aircraft separation requirements while ensuring the operation safety. The final simulation results show that the dynamic separation reduction in CRJ-900 following a medium and heavy aircraft can reach 44.3% and 51.6%, respectively. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Flight Simulation and Aircraft Autonomy)
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25 pages, 14047 KiB  
Article
Design of a DSP-Based Motion-Cueing Algorithm Using the Kinematic Solution for the 6-DoF Motion Platform
by Ming-Yen Wei
Aerospace 2022, 9(4), 203; https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace9040203 - 9 Apr 2022
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 3407
Abstract
A motion-cueing algorithm is a motion simulation system that makes the pilot feel the flight motion by calculating the attitude of the platform. This paper presents the design a kinematics model and two motion-cueing algorithms for a multi-axis motion platform. Firstly, the relationship [...] Read more.
A motion-cueing algorithm is a motion simulation system that makes the pilot feel the flight motion by calculating the attitude of the platform. This paper presents the design a kinematics model and two motion-cueing algorithms for a multi-axis motion platform. Firstly, the relationship between each axis is derived from the kinematics theory and motion platform transformation. Next, two motion-cueing algorithms are designed providing the pilot with the bodily sensations of the 6-DoF motion platform. By using a hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) approach simulated in a real-time digital simulator, the control operations are performed in a digital signal processor (DSP). All of the motion-cueing algorithms, including the classical washout algorithm and the optimal control algorithm, are realized through a DSP, TMS-320F-28377D. The simulation results verify the theoretical analysis and illustrate the correctness and practicability of the proposed method. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Flight Simulation and Aircraft Autonomy)
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19 pages, 7191 KiB  
Article
Design of a Multi-Constraint Formation Controller Based on Improved MPC and Consensus for Quadrotors
by Danghui Yan, Weiguo Zhang and Hang Chen
Aerospace 2022, 9(2), 94; https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace9020094 - 11 Feb 2022
Cited by 19 | Viewed by 3487
Abstract
The formation flight of quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is a complex multi-constraint process. When designing a formation controller, the dynamic model of the UAV itself has modeling errors and uncertainties. Model predictive control (MPC) is one of the best control methods for [...] Read more.
The formation flight of quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is a complex multi-constraint process. When designing a formation controller, the dynamic model of the UAV itself has modeling errors and uncertainties. Model predictive control (MPC) is one of the best control methods for solving the constrained problem. First, a mathematical model of the quadrotor considering disturbance and uncertainty is established using the Lagrange–Euler formulation and is divided into a rotational subsystem (RS) and a translational subsystem (TS). Here, an improved MPC (IMPC) strategy based on an error model is introduced for the control of UAVs. The tracking errors caused by synthesis disturbance can be eliminated because of the integrator embedded in the augmented model. In addition, by modifying the parameters of the cost function, not only can the degree of stability of the closed-loop subsystem be specified, but also numerical problems in the MPC calculation can be improved. The simulation results demonstrate the stability of the designed controller in formation maintenance and its robustness to external disturbances and uncertainties. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Flight Simulation and Aircraft Autonomy)
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