Feel force control incorporating velocity feedforward and inverse model observer for control loading system of flight simulator

Flight simulator is an essential rig for training pilot, and the control loading system is one of its important components to simulate control force feel of flying in actual airplane. This article states the key factor of control loading system: the disturbance of the flight control displacement on the accuracy of the force loop, that is, the inner loop of control loading system, which affects the fidelity of control force feel simulation. To reduce the disturbance effectively in the inner loop of control loading system, a new strategy, combining velocity feedforward with inverse model observer, is proposed, and the corresponding robust stability analysis is also provided. A transfer function of nonminimum-phase system inverse model, as the inverse model observer, is designed. In order to verify the practical feasibility of the proposed control strategy, experiment is conducted with hardware-in-the-loop- simulation platform based on RT-LAB rapid control prototype. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed control strategy improves the performance of the control loading system effectively.