A Virtual Reality Approach to Piloted Flight Simulation

A pilot-in-the-loop simulation environment aimed at increasing pilot visual cues without the need of expensive visualization hardware is presented. The proposed solution relies on Virtual Reality (VR) to enhance the pilot immersion in the simulated environment. The project is integrated in the development of the complete simulation framework FRAME-Sim, focused on simulating rotorcraft in early conceptual design stages, and therefore relying on physics-based multibody simulation of the rotorcraft flight dynamics and free/open source software. FRAME-Sim visual environments that are being used include products available to the market as well as homemade solutions developed to obtain the highest level of versatility during the simulation.