Simulation of airborne satellite communications using a platform motion emulator

Demand for all types of satellite communications (SATCOM) for airborne users, both military and civil, has risen rapidly in the last decade. However, SATCOM installation costs are significant and live trials involving real aircraft can be extremely costly. Furthermore, they can be of limited technical value if ground truth is unavailable or measurement conditions are unreproducible. This paper describes a cost-effective approach using a synthetic environment for airborne SATCOM that is based upon a platform motion emulator (PME). Calibration and testing of the emulator against known flight profiles are described and other models to be integrated are introduced. A comprehensive synthetic environment has been developed for R&D, rapid prototyping, system evaluation and trials planning for a wide range of communication and sensing equipment. The flexibility of the PME has been shown to offer an extremely valuable capability. We foresee its use in simulating many platforms on land, sea or air.