On joint hardware-in-the-loop simulation of aircraft control system and propulsion system
A novel hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulation system of aircraft is presented in this paper. The simulation aims to evaluate the performance of the aircraft flight control system and propulsion system with the influence of coupling characteristics between the two systems. The simulation system is designed and established based on the on-board devices and simulation equipment, such as flight control computer, engine controller, servo actuators and ground simulation computer. In order to meet the requirement of real-time, the simulation software is developed based on the real-time extension (RTX) operating system. The presented system has been successfully utilized in the joint HIL simulation experiment of an aircraft to test its flight control system and population system. The results show that the simulation system runs stably and reliably, and it can be an effective platform for the design and evaluation of the aircraft before its flight test.