|
|
|
|
|
 The Institute for Flight and Control Systems at Darmstadt University of Technology (TUD) has a long-lasting background particularly in the area of flight mechanics. With the advent of the present Head of the Institute in 1982, the scope of work was significantly extended by safety and human factors activities. Cooperation with industry was strengthened. Since 1986, there has been a highly fruitful cooperation with Diehl Avionik Systeme (formerly VDO Luftfahrtgerätewerk, VDO-L), investigating new ways of presenting information to the cockpit crew. This led to a pioneering role in the development of Synthetic Vision Displays. Various types of displays, ranging from standard head down displays to head-up and head mounted displays, were and are still examined in the institute’s highly configurable research cockpit simulator with a modular concept for hard- and software. A focus of work is the avoidance of CFIT accidents by presenting 3D information on the surrounding terrain to pilots. The participation of airline pilots in display evaluation from the very beginning of the project resulted in a technology which has found broad acceptance among pilots. Their feedback has significantly contributed to the design of display formats showing an integral representation of the flight situation and improving crew situational awareness. As terrain and airport databases are the backbone of any Synthetic Vision system, TUD also started research on aviation databases, developing a new concept for data generation, handling and storage. Consequently, TUD was a major contributor to the international standards EUROCAE/RTCA ED-98/DO-276 (User Requirements for Terrain and Obstacle Data) and ED-99/DO-272 (User Requirements for Aerodrome Mapping) released recently. In the field of navigation, the institute is concerned with integrity aspects of new GNSS-based systems and has completed a navigation test vehicle equipped with various sensors, including an INS. Besides, this test vehicle can also be used for database generation and validation, as well as for taxi-guidance research. In addition to the cooperation with national and international industry partners, TUD has also been involved in various EU-funded projects, e.g. AWARD, ISAWARE, VICTORIA and ISAWARE II. Participation focuses on (but is not limited to) human factors research and aviation databases. The staff consists of some 25 engineers, two small workshops (electronic and mechanical), and research additionally benefits from many students doing their project or thesis work at the institute. |
