Story ID: 024b
FlightSafety Mixes Reality in New Simulator
By: Matt Thurber
Caption: FlightSafety's new mixed-reality training devices will expand pilot training opportunities and help lower training costs.
Word Count: 792
An interesting development that might have a profound effect on the training simulation industry is underway at FlightSafety International’s Visual Systems division in St Louis, Missouri. Some lucky visitors to the Heli-Expo show earlier this year in Anaheim, California, were able to get a private demo of the new technology, which FlightSafety calls a “mixed-reality” flight simulator.

The new simulator takes advantage of the many years of development of FlightSafety’s Vital image generator and visual display, marrying the most recent version with virtual reality headwear and hardware controls to create a mixed-reality simulator. 

Virtual reality or VR—in the form of eyewear that makes the user feel immersed in the simulation—is nothing new in flight simulators, especially in consumer types. But a problem with these setups is that there is no good way for users to experience moving the simulated aircraft’s controls within the VR environment. There are controls that a pilot can use to simulate pushing the aircraft’s buttons and turning its knobs, but there is no feedback mechanism for feeling the action of pressing and turning. And such VR setups don’t allow the user to look outside the VR environment to manipulate physical controls.

FlightSafety’s mixed-reality simulator solves that problem by combining special VR gear with a hardware platform that replicates the cockpit controls and enables the realistic feel of actuating avionics and other controls. The VR headset is fitted with external cameras, and this allows FlightSafety engineers to program what the pilot sees in virtual reality and what real-world items are passed through, such as avionics.

For example, when pilots looks out the windows, they can see a virtual rendering of the world, just the same as they would see out the windows in a FlightSafety full flight simulator. In the helicopter, VR adds extra views, for example, the ability to look down and see the helicopter’s skids as they fly over terrain or water or to look back into the rear of the helicopter and see empty seats and the view out the rear windows. But then if the pilots need to change a frequency, program a flight plan, or change some setting on the instrument panel, they would see these through the camera view and be able to reach out and touch the associated physical controls. For control of the aircraft itself, the pilots fly with a familiar yoke for fixed-wing airplanes or cyclic and collective for rotorcraft.

The mixed-reality trainer comes in three types: a desktop device, the standard version, and a pro version. Each is powered by FlightSafety’s own aerodynamic modeling and simulation software, so the experience is consistent for each trainer type and also when flying in a FlightSafety fixed-base or full-motion simulator, which all run the Vital visual system.

The standard version is fairly light and easy to move around. It consists of a powerful, rugged PC, the head-mounted display, the Vital display, and controls including a cyclic and collective. The other two versions include the light, which is basically a laptop PC that can run the software along with a yoke control and the headset. The high-end pro version, which was demoed at Heli-Expo, adds a motion base to the standard version and a force feedback system for the flight controls to provide a more realistic control feel. The pro version can be moved around on a set of wheels, although it isn’t as convenient to transport.

With the light version, said FlightSafety visual database product manager Mike Johnson, “We can start a level of training." The standard version "still supports a huge amount of training value.” The idea is that a client could use the light version for training at home, including preparing for classes at a FlightSafety learning center. But beyond that, the standard and pro versions could deliver a lot of training value at a far lower cost than a full-flight simulator or even a traditional fixed-based training device.

“We’re definitely in a phase of heavy investment in technology,” Johnson said. “We love to tap into the technology and come up with simulation solutions that support that.” And as it turns out, the timing of the coronavirus pandemic highlights the utility of the mixed-reality simulation. With travel greatly restricted, an operator could bring a trainer to its facility to help pilots stay current. A military customer might want to keep one on ships to help pilots make more efficient use of downtime. “It fits anywhere you can plug in a lamp,” he said. “It’s so flexible and lightweight, it could be a direct use-case for the pandemic.” 
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