High Bandwidth Hexapod for Hypersonic Flight Simulation

Hypersonic flight environments can include motion with high frequency spectral content that is difficult to simulate.This high frequency vibration may adversely affect the accuracy of guidance and control sensors, so it is very important to the Air Force Research Laboratory to be able to recreate the motion in a way that allows sensor performance to be evaluated.Motion platforms such as the KHILS ISTAT facility have been built for this purpose, but current technology only partially addresses this need.Present frequency capability is limited to about 500 Hz, while 1000 Hz bandwidth would ideally be available.Dynamic Structures and Materials (DSM) believes that these needs can be met through a high-frequency motion simulator (HFMS) that uses a parallel kinematic actuator (PKA).A project has been conducted to evaluate the feasibility of and project the performance for the system.Important findings from the Phase I research are summarized and a plan is presented to build the HFMS in Phase II.