Interface research and flight control based on FlightGear

The best advantages of FlightGear, an open source software of 3-D flight's simulation, are free and have secondary-development ability. However, its open source code is maintained by many programs coming from different countries and regions, resulting in various style of code. In addition, There is no an impeccable manual guide for code development, as a result of lack of funds. Therefore, this paper focuses on clarifying interfaces of FlightGear as well as how to use native-fdm, native-ctrls interface of it to communicate with external programs. This research helps developers of controlling subjects concentrate on algorithms or other special modules of airplane model instead of spending extra time coding visual or rendering modules.

I. Introduction

FlightGear is an open-source flight simulator. It supports a variety of popular platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux, etc.) and is developed by skilled volunteers from around the world. The goal of the FlightGear project is to create a sophisticated and open flight simulator framework for use in research or academic environments, pilot training, as an industry engineering tool, for DIY-ers to pursue their favorite interesting flight simulation idea, and last but certainly not least as a fun, realistic, and challenging desktop flight simulator [1].