COAST - A Simulation and Control Framework to Support Multidisciplinary Optimization and Aircraft Design with CPACS

Abstract

This paper describes COAST (CPACS-oriented aircraft simulation tool), a fixed-wing aircraft simulation framework tailored to an XML-based open source common exchange format for multidisciplinary aircraft design, called CPACS (Common Parametric Aircraft Configuration Schema). COAST enables designers to utilize flight simulation on desktop computers or even on full motion simulators in early stages of aircraft design, which facilitates the assessment of flight characteristics and handling qualities as well as early flight control design. The core model of COAST is presented along with its interface to the data exchange format CPACS, which is implemented via import functions based on XML parsers. Due to the necessity of generically working autopilot functionalities, a nonlinear flight control concept based on the idea of the nonlinear model following control (NMFC) methodology is proposed. In order to handle novel aircraft configurations with a redundant set of control effectors, an optimization-based control allocation module is integrated. The process of integrating the model into the German Aerospace Center's full motion flight simulator AVES (Air Vehicle Simulator) in Braunschweig is discussed.