New Predictive Filters for Compensating the Transport Delay on a Flight Simulator

NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VAThe problems of transport delay in a flight simulator, such as its sources and effects, are reviewed. Then their effects on a pilot -in -the -loop control system are investigated with simulations. Three current prominent delay compensators — the lead/lag filter, McFarland filter, and the Sobiski/Cardullo filter were analyzed and compared. This paper introduces two novel delay compensation techniques — an adaptive predictor using the Kalman estimator and a state space predictive filter using a reference aerodynamic model. Applications of these two new compensators on recorded data from the NASA Langley Research Center Visual Motion Simulator show that they achieve better com pensation over the current ones.