Active sidestick design using impedance control

The active sidestick is a mechanical sidestick assembly for fly-by-wire flight control that uses motors, electronics and a high bandwidth closed loop control system to provide grip feel of spring return, breakout forces, and soft-stops. The grip feel characteristics can be user-configured. Also, advanced features such as two-stick cross-coupled operation can be implemented using only electronic feedback signals instead of a mechanical link connecting the two sticks. The goal of this project is to develop a proof of concept system that implements the most important functional requirements of the active sidestick. Safety-critical issues and other flight-worthiness issues are not considered here. The intention is to demonstrate the functionality of the active sidesticks to potential customers in order to generate interest in a request for proposal. This paper describes the system architecture and functional operation of the proof of concept system.