A modular CAN based data acquisition system for flight simulators

This paper describes a data acquisition and actuation system developed for flight simulator systems. The acquisition system is modular and distributed and uses a Controller Area Network (CAN) bus to interconnect the various modules with the computers where the simulation runs. Nine different modules were developed according to the needs of flight simulation systems. The requirements of these modules were defined in cooperation with EMPODEF-TI, a leading company in this area. Until now the system was successfully implemented in three training flight simulators, two for the Socata TB 30 Epsilon aircraft and one for the Schweizer E300C helicopter. The former flight simulators are being used daily by the Portuguese Air Force (FAP) in pilot training.