The effect of simulator motion on pilot control behaviour for agile and inert helicopter dynamics

Even though simulators are often used in flight training, the effects of the different motion components on pilot performance and control behaviour are still not fully understood. In most hexapod motion base simulators the translational motion needs to be reduced significantly to fit within the limited motion space, while the rotational motion might not need attenuation. This paper presents the results of an experiment that investigated the effects of simulator motion in a roll-lateral helicopter control task for both agile and inert helicopter dynamics. The experiment was performed in the MPI Motion Simulator, which has the unique ability of presenting the motion in this task 1-to-1. The results indicate that both roll and lateral motion are important for increasing performance in reducing the roll error. The lateral motion also significantly reduced the lateral tracking errors. Pilots increased their control activity, but had a lower performance in reducing the lateral error for the inert helicopter dynamics. These effects in performance and control activity were caused by a change in the pilots' control strategy as was observed from the multimodal pilot model parameters. The effects on pilot tracking performance were also apparent from a significant change in the disturbance and target open-loop characteristics.