Control loading mod

[ogami musashi]

Hi Dragon,

I'd like to know if realsimulator ever considered control loading for a warthog mod? That is a force sensors measure the force applied on the stick, then a electrical motors actually move the stick. This has several applications now like the F-35 hotas, (or T-50 for kai industries). In the simulation domain, it exists too. The big question mark is the cost. Did you every made an assessment of such a cost?

Background of control loading for those who don't know it

Recent sticks in actual planes and simulators are called "active controls'". In those active controls it is not the pilot who move the stick, throttle or rudder pedals, but electrical motors. In each device, force sensors measure the force applied by the pilot on the control device and the electrical motor moves it. "active controls" make use of what is called "control loading"

Control loading offers many possibilities like variable damping, force feedback, variable sensitivity and so on. The problem for us is that it involves an interface between the simulator and the hotas, i.e the simulator must feed the hotas with flight parameters.

However the basic function of control loading that is the force vs displacement (force sensors and electrical motors) would provide, i think, better handling. A common dilemma in control is the fast input changes vs precision. In certain tasks, like say air to air tracking, it is desirable to have a control stick that allows for fine inputs. In this case, a large displacement stick with a big arm lever is the best because it has ample rotation angle and each degree has a large arc length so you can fine tune your inputs. However in some other tasks (close formation flying, refueling), a stick that offers quick, large corrections (from leftmost to right most for example) is desired. In this case a small displacement stick is desirable because you can quickly go from one to another. Naturally, the two oppose and force sensing was thought as a solution because we can control our force with precision while changes in force are quick. However two problems arise with pure force sensing sticks (with no motion): First it is very hard to feel the direction in which the force is applied. This results in unwanted axes inputs (induced roll when pitching and conversely). Next, we can easily tune the variation of force applied but not the amount. This means that with pure force sensing stick, tendency to overcontrol is frequent. Those two drawback can be seen in FSSB R3 too. To improve on it, recent lateral stick have limited motion so that the pilot have some clues about the direction and amount of force he is applying. But the limited motion range of those sticks induces non linearity. For small inputs it works but past a certain amount of force the stick is at its maximum displacement and the sticks becomes a pure force sensing device only.

The control loading stick (fore vs displacement) improves on it because the motors are very precise and thus can move the stick over a small motion range while the force sensing unit is very precise. Hence the two contradictory requirements of precision vs quickness of corrections is better fulfilled.

[Dragon]

In study, prof.blem is only the price
But can be done

[ogami musashi]

In study, prof.blem is only the price
But can be done

What would be the unit price range (for a FSSB R3 like quantity production run)?