An Integrated, Modular Simulation System for Education ... - Cal Poly

the Heads Up Display (HUD). While changing the HUD is not a basic task, variousHUD s can be substituted to test effects of symbology and HUD dynamics [Ref. 27, 28].The graphics are not limited to three views. As many views are available as computersthat can be connected to the network and supplied with graphics cards. Tower viewscan be processed on a separate computer with the same graphics set up and a graphicalmodel of the aircraft included in the visual database, using the position and orientationinformation to position the aircraft model in the terrain database. Since the graphicscomputers are only receiving position and orientation information and the source can beanything it is possible to play back flight test data or previous simulations by sendingthe saved state information to the graphics computers using a function to send the data atthe correct rate. Since the playback is not limited to real time, very long periodcharacteristics can be seen by playing the frames back quickly, or very short perioddynamics can be seen by playing back the data very slowly.NetworkThe key to being able to use PC s is the Ethernet network. Using a standardTCP/IP socket protocol the main simulation computer (the Spiegle) integrates theequations of motion and sends out position and orientation information to the graphicscomputers (the Eagle and Phantom), and state information to and from the IO computer(the PhEagle). The network can support multiple simulations as sources providing mutiaircraftsimulations such as formation flight, air to air refueling, and/or aerial combat.Parallel ComputingParallel computing is a technique used by super computers to split up tasks toprocesses that can be done at the same time by separate CPU s. Simulation of any kind ofvehicle lends it self to parallel processing by having at least five separate tasks that need18