Multi-Domain Flight Simulation with the DLR Robotic Motion Simulator

Abstract

Aircraft are highly optimized, integrated systems that operate under vastly varying conditions and provide many functionalities. The systems providing these functionalities are highly interconnected, making the design of aircraft a very complex and risky undertaking. The ever increasing complexity is a strong motivation to not only address individual disciplines, but also their integration and interactions from the earliest design stages. Multi-disciplinary modeling and simulation have been of strong interest for many years. In this paper, a highly modular framework for aircraft models and model components is presented that is able to integrate and interchange all relevant physical aspects, systems and environmental aspects. The resulting simulation enables to ‘fly’ an aircraft with all relevant functionalities under realistic circumstances and enables integrated design analyses, covering operational aspects and failure cases. The integrated simulation can run in batch mode as well as real-time application driving the DLR Robotic Motion Simulator.