RIPTIDE

Real-time Interactive Prototype Technology Integration/Development Environment

Figure 1: Real-time Interactive Prototype Technology Integration/Development Environment

Piloted simulation evaluation of a notional control law design using a high-fidelity non-linear mathematical model has always involved a complex and lengthy integration process. The reason has been that though math models and control law design tools have been developed and improved over the years, they were never designed to work together. As a result, the integration process has not lent itself to rapid prototyping, whereby ideas can be quickly implemented and tested without significantly lengthening the development cycle.

RIPTIDE eliminates this lengthy integration process and allows notional control laws to be quickly tested and re-tested in piloted simulation. This is accomplished by treating each component of the simulation as an independent process and providing inter-process communication through a shared area of the computer memory. Also, process timing and scheduling is used to ensure that the various components of the simulation are executed in the proper order. The only requirement is for each process to be able to read from and write to the shared area of memory. Most existing software can be modified to accomplish this task and can therefore be incorporated into the RIPTIDE simulation environment.

RIPTIDE can be used to concurrently conduct mathematical model development, control system design, and cockpit-display-concepts evaluation. The environment makes piloted simulation readily available, and each discipline is able to take advantage of tools developed by the other disciplines.

Figure 2: RIPTIDE Graphical User Interface

SALES & OTHER INQUIRIES CONTACT
San José State University Research Foundation 
flight-control-sta@sjsu.edu