Common use of Simulations Clause in Contracts

Simulations. Four facilities, all motion-based generic simulators with six degree of freedom, were involved in ARISTOTEL (see Figure 2): two for fixed wing research - FS-102 simulator at TsaGI and GRACE (Generic Research Aircraft Cockpit Environment) at NLR – and two for rotorcraft research - ▇▇▇▇▇▇ (Simulation Motion and Navigation Technologies) Research Simulator at Delft University and HELIFLIGHT-R at The Bibby flight simulation facility at the University of Liverpool. First simulator tests were performed in March 2012 and the results are under analysis. The use of multiple simulation facilities brings with it a number of advantages: • The occurrence of A/RPCs is greatly dependent on the evaluation pilot, his or her training and instructions and the evaluation task the pilot is asked to perform. Simulators can be used to explore different approaches and assess their effectiveness in predicting A/RPC events. • A simulator‟s level of fidelity influences its ability to reliably predict A/RPC occurrences. Accuracy of the mathematical model, realism of the control feel system, quality of visual and vestibular cues all play a role in shaping the pilot‟s behaviour. A systematic study to identify the relative importance of these aspects, as well as the development of guidelines for adjusting a simulator‟s characteristics, can help A/RPC researchers focus their efforts on tuning their simulator in ways that maximize the accuracy of RPC predictions. The project involves also biodynamic tests. Trials have taken place in February and July 2011 (▇▇▇▇▇▇ and HELIFLIGHT-R) and April 2011 (FS-102). The goal of these biodynamic tests is to understand what particular helicopter vibrations induce adverse biodynamic couplings (BDC) effects and what mission tasks are more prone to such effects. For helicopters, the results revealed some important conclusions, for example: • BDC depends on the control tasks: for the different control tasks (i.e., different neuromuscular settings), a different level of BDC was measured; • BDC depends also on the control (disturbance) axis: the highest level of BDC is measured in sway direction, followed by the surge direction. The least amount of BDC is measured in the heave direction. This demonstrates that the biodynamic couplings (coming only from neuromuscular adaptation in this experiment) depend not only on more obvious features such as pilot weight and posture (which can vary from pilot to pilot) but also on more elusive factors such as pilot workload and task. The paper “Present and Future Trends in Rotorcraft Pilot Couplings (RPCs) – A Retrospective Survey of Recent Research Activities within the European Project ARISTOTEL” has been classified among the 10 best papers presented at ERF. The ARISTOTEL consortium was pleased to welcome representatives from the industry at two internal workshops. The workshops contributed to a fruitful exchange between the partners in the project and external experts in the field and gave ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ partners direction and new impulse regarding their research and informed relevant industrial companies and researchers about the project progress.