Photo By Gary Ell | Stephen DeLash, a fourth-year Industrial Engineering student at Temple University...... read more read more
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Naval Surface Warfare Center, Philadelphia Division (NSWCPD) has partnered with Temple University Ambler Campus to support a unique Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) outreach program in the Greater Philadelphia area where senior design students are building a one-of-a-kind flight simulator from a crashed airplane with more types of simulators in the pipeline.
NSWCPD supports a broad range of educational outreach programs with the long-term goal of building a relevant and capable future STEM workforce. Developing leaders with this expertise and real-world experience requires interdisciplinary STEM education rooted in basic and applied scientific research, as well as access to the latest technology.
The champion behind this unique STEM project is NSWCPD Senior Acoustics Engineer, Sherwood (Woody) Polter, who also serves as adjunct instructor for Temple’s College of Engineering, where he is currently involved in research and development related to computational processes for diagnostics and prognostics of machinery system condition-based health monitoring.
As an advisor to the Temple Engineering Senior Design Team, Polter oversees the Light Aircraft Dynamic Flight Control Simulator (LA-DFCS) team. The university has been loaned the fuselage of a single-engine Cirrus SR22 aircraft that had crashed, and the LA-DFCS team has been repurposing it into a state-of-the-art flight simulator, during a multi-year effort.
“Students can learn to fly at a low barrier-to-entry point, featuring an incredibly realistic experience of what it is like to fly a real light aircraft in any weather or configuration,” said Polter.
The fourth-year engineering students are working on their senior design projects. “The Flight Sim will be one-of-a-kind using the fuselage and cockpit of an actual Cirrus SR22,” pointed out student Rich Lodge.
Some of the students, like Lodge, who are majoring in electrical engineering, are programming and tweaking in-flight variables of this particular aircraft, along with adding flight paths and thousands of real-world airport locations. They are also doing the same with landing and take-off conditions, using programmable motion controllers to simulate behavior during extreme weather conditions, such as thunderstorms, crosswinds, fog, icing, or real-time weather.
Stephen DeLash, a fourth-year Industrial engineering student and private pilot, has been using Virtual Air Traffic Simulation network (VATSIM) for real-time air traffic control and Air Manager to create the avionics systems such as compass, magneto five-position switch fuel indicator, and standby instruments for the pilot. Lodge is working on embedded systems with Arduino software, creating position values, such as speed and acceleration, and testing these values with an oscilloscope using Simtools for the 6DOF kinematic motion platform system.
“Having the support from the Navy really makes the program possible, both financially and intellectually as our advisor [Polter] has such a wide range of experience and knowledge,” explained Lodge.
The fully equipped and near-perfectly intact SR22 cockpit, bolstering side-stick flight controls that control flaps and rudders, radio communication and even leather seats, enhances the ambience and the reality of flying experience. The cockpit has approximately 90 percent functionality. Another highlight of this particular aircraft features the Cirrus Airframe Parachute System (CAPS), a large parachute that can be deployed in an emergency to lower the entire aircraft to the ground safely.
“This parachute capability is being adapted into the simulator programming, for those ‘just in case’ simulated moments for an emergency landing,” said Polter.
Students are utilizing software such as Solidworks to build 3D assembly models of a rotational base that the simulator will be mounted upon to replicate movement during flight along with vibrations that occur on take-offs and landings.
Alvin Ayensu, a fourth-year student studying electrical and computer engineering, is designing an energy absorbing, rotational gimbal to rest a series of LCD projectors onto. The projectors will make the simulator pilot fully immersed by 4K, 300-degree wrap-around visuals that cover every window of the aircraft, with excellent real-world visuals.
Fourth-year student Will Harron is studying computer engineering. He is incorporating a servo drive controller for the motors that encodes roll, pitch, and yaw to perform platform motion.
“When you are the pilot sitting in this cockpit, looking out the window, you will feel like you’re flying, especially with the motion of the controller mounted on the base of the simulator,” said Harron.
Mechanical Engineering student Joshua Robles is working on airframe structural design components and building 3D models of an entirely new fuselage to construct a complete secondary flight simulator from scratch. The goal is to build simulators and develop an aviation-related STEM outreach program offered to middle and high school students at the Temple Ambler campus.
“The project is currently on its third year of a multi-year effort. Our plan is to build a STEM Kit Avionics Program, available to both middle school and high school students, as well as avionics enthusiasts. It will evolve into a student-run business that will encourage students to utilize these kits and introduce them to engineering, said Polter.
Polter has been working with STEM programs since getting involved with the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) Sea Perch program in 2000 where he would go out to various middle schools and help the students build robotic underwater vehicles that they would use in competition at local universities’ swimming pools.
Polter became an adjunct at Temple University in 2016 and decided that he wanted to add more complexity to STEM outreach, seeking to build a cadre of university-level engineering students who would serve as mentors to middle school and high school students by developing and innovating STEM kits. His endeavor is taking off (literally).
“The enthusiasm for the LA-DFCS program has been overwhelming as the simulator has taken flight,” said Polter. “Developing the avionics kits available for purchase will help offset the cost of the overall program.”
“The program has several sponsors, such as Stratus Aviation Foundation, a mentoring organization that encourages and enables people to pursue their aviation passion though aeronautical engineering, like building airplanes, and the Navy of course. We are always looking for more sponsors to become involved with the program and the greater STEM outreach,” said Polter.
Polter continued, “STEM teaching and learning goes beyond the mere transfer of knowledge. It engages students and equips them with critical thinking, problem solving, creative and collaborative skills. Our Flight Simulator and the entire LA-DFCS team are introducing engineering to a future STEM workforce in a very cool way!”
NSWCPD employs approximately 2,800 civilian engineers, scientists, technicians, and support personnel. The NSWCPD team does the research and development, test and evaluation, acquisition support, and in-service and logistics engineering for the non-nuclear machinery, ship machinery systems, and related equipment and material for Navy surface ships and submarines. NSWCPD is also the lead organization providing cybersecurity for all ship systems.
| Date Taken: | 11.18.2021 |
| Date Posted: | 11.18.2021 11:38 |
| Story ID: | 409579 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 796 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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