Low-Cost Strain-Gauge Force-Sensing Sidestick for 6-DoF Flight Simulation: Design and Human-in-the-Loop Evaluation

Area of Science:

• Aerospace Engineering
• Human Factors Engineering
• Control Systems

Background:

• Modern fly-by-wire (FBW) aircraft require high-fidelity simulations.
• Existing force-sensing systems for FBW simulation are often prohibitively expensive.
• There is a need for cost-effective, reconfigurable simulation solutions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To design, develop, and validate a low-cost, reconfigurable force-sensing sidestick.
• To assess the system's ability to capture pure pilot force inputs.
• To make high-fidelity FBW simulation accessible for research and training.

Main Methods:

• Utilized four strain-gauge load cells for force input measurement.
• Integrated the sidestick with a 6-DoF non-linear flight model.
• Conducted a pitch-angle tracking task with 16 participants (pilots and non-pilots).

Main Results:

• Control strategy significantly impacted performance, with feedforward control yielding lower error variance.
• Subjective assessments (Cooper-Harper, NASA-TLX) validated objective findings.
• The sidestick successfully differentiated between control techniques.

Conclusions:

• The developed low-cost sidestick is a viable tool for high-fidelity FBW simulation.
• The open-source platform enhances accessibility for academic research, pilot training, and human factors analysis.
• Pilot control strategy is a critical factor in FBW system performance evaluation.