Visual-Vestibular Interaction in Pilot's Perception of Aircraft or Simulator Motion

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Visual-Vestibular Interaction in Pilot's Perception of Aircraft or Simulator Motion

R. J. A. W. Hosman / J. C. Vandervaart

The importance of man's vestibular organs in perceiving cockpit motion in an aircraft or a simulator is nowadays hardly questioned, as witnessed by the present widespread use of six degrees of freedom motion systems for flight simulators. Still more advantages could be gained from the use of moving base simulators. To illustrate this, research on control behavior and performance of subjects in target following and disturbance tasks is reviewed. By using results of work by the authors and by others, the importance of peripheral visual and vestibular motion perception in tasks that require inner-loop stabilization, is emphasized. Results of stimulus response experiments, especially designed to gather insight in central and peripheral visual and vestibular perception of motion are summarized and used to explain findings of tracking experiments. It is concluded that peripheral visual and cockpit motion cues are of paramount importance in actual or simulated manual aircraft control and that, in simulation, the compensation for simulator motion system dynamics, computing time delays and motion control laws deserve much more attention.