SIMTOOL-AN INTEGRATED GRAPHICS AND ON-ORBIT VEHICLE DYNAMICSSIMULATION TOOL

TECHNOLOGY ADVANCEMENT IN THE AREAS OF GRAPHICS SIMULATION AND VEHICLE DYNAMICS SIMULATION IS PROCEEDING RAPIDLY AND THE DEMAND FOR IMPROVED GRAPHICS CAPABILITIES FOR REAL-TIME VEHICLE DYNAMICS SIMULATION IS INCREASING WITH THE NEW TECHNOLOGIES. HOWEVER, NO SYSTEM EXIST WHICH INTEGRATES THECAPABILITIES OF A STATE-OF-THE-ART GRAPHICS INTERFACE TOOL WITH A STATE-OF-THE-ART VEHICLE SIMULATION TOOL INTO A SINGLE ENGINEERING AND FLIGHT OPERATIONS TOOL. THE SIMTOOL PROPOSED BY THIS DOCUMENT WILL INTEGRATE EXISTING STATE-OF-THE-ART GRAPHICS AND VEHICLE DYNAMICS SIMULATION ARCHITECTURES, VIA AUTOMATIC CODE GENERATION AND INTEGRATION, RESULTING IN AN ADVANCED ENGINEERING WORKSTATION WITH APPLICATIONS FOR REAL-TIME FLIGHT TRAINERS,HUMAN FACTORS RESEARCH, ENGINEERING ANALYSIS, FLIGHT PLANNING AND OPERATIONS, AND ON-BOARD EXPERT SYSTEMS. SIMTOOL WILL ALLOW A USER TO CONFIGURE, IN A SINGLE PROCESS,A CUSTOMIZED MULTIPLE ACTIVE VEHICLE SIMULATION WITH REAL-TIME GRAPHICS AND HIGH FIDELITY DYNAMICS, WITHOUT PROGRAMMING A SINGLE LINE OF SOURCE CODE.