System and method for simulated aircraft control through desired direction of flight

• US 8,770,979 B2
• Filed: 03/09/2013
• Issued: 07/08/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/21/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Gaijin Games KFT (Gaijin Entertainment Holdings SA)
• Original Assignee: Gaijin Entertainment Corporation
• Inventors: Yudintsev, Kirill, Polyakov, Alexander
• Primary Examiner(s): Musselman, Timothy A
• Application Number:
  US13/792,025
• Publication Number:
  US 20130252208A1
• Time in Patent Office: 486 Days
• Field of Search: 434 29- 71, 701/14, 703/17
• US Class Current: 434/51
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 9/16 Ambient or aircraft conditions simulated or indicated by instrument or alarm
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 9/24 including display or recording of simulated flight path
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 9/30 Simulation of view from aircraft

Abstract

An aircraft control system for a user of a simulated aircraft. The system includes input devices for controlling the simulated aircraft, a video display having three-dimensional graphics, modeling software for determining position and orientation information based on desired direction of flight obtained through the input devices. User controls desired direction of flight through the input devices, thus controlling aircraft. The aircraft control system may be embodied as a flight game.

Claims

1. An aircraft control system for a user of a simulated aircraft through a desired direction of flight, comprising:

a video device for presenting the user with a view of a simulated environment;

modeling means responsive to the desired direction of flight for determining position and orientation of the simulated aircraft;

wherein the modeling means analyzes which control surface adjustments are needed to the simulated aircraft to fly along the desired direction of flight and modifies a simulated aircraft state to align the simulated aircraft with the desired direction of flight; and

a plurality of simulated input devices for controlling the desired direction of flight, wherein the user controls the direction of flight by moving a graphical element on the video device.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising showing movement of the graphical element on the video device in response to joystick commands.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the graphical element is a circle.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the graphical element is a cross-hairs.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the graphical element moves in response to the user moving a mouse.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein in response to the movement of the graphical element on the video device, parameters of the simulated aircraft, including its ailerons, elevator and rudder are changed so as to bring a current direction of flight of the simulated aircraft aligned with the desired direction of flight.

7. The system of claim 1, further providing a camera view of the simulated aircraft such that the desired direction of flight is in a center of the camera view.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the system provides, as its outputs, an aileron control value, an elevator control value, and a rudder control value, which correspond to physical parameters of the simulated aircraft, in a range [−

1, 1], which represents aileron control axis.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein coefficients used to calculate the aileron control value, the elevator control value, and the rudder control value are constants.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein coefficients used to calculate the aileron control value, the elevator control value, and the rudder control value depend on differences between a desired orientation and a current orientation.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein coefficients used to calculate the aileron control value, the elevator control value, and the rudder control value depend on differences between current values and previous values.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein coefficients used to calculate the aileron control value, the elevator control value, and the rudder control value are calculated based on a heuristic algorithm.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein the aileron control value, the elevator control value, and the rudder control value are calculated based on a full aerodynamic model of the simulated aircraft.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the system receives, as its inputs, current aircraft linear speed, current aircraft linear acceleration, current aircraft angular speed, current aircraft angular acceleration, current aircraft orientation, and the desired direction of flight.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the aircraft orientation is represented by any of (a) Euler angles, including yaw, pitch, roll, (b) quaternion, and (c) a 3×

3 matrix.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the graphical element represents an absolute desired direction of flight.

17. The system of claim 1, wherein the graphical element represents a difference from a current direction of flight.

18. The system of claim 1, wherein a server verifies that flight parameters transmitted by the system correspond to modeled parameters of a real aircraft.

19. The system of claim 1, wherein the system displays the simulated aircraft from a third person perspective.

20. The system of claim 1, wherein the system displays a perspective from inside the simulated aircraft.

21. The system of claim 1, wherein the system displays a perspective from an arbitrary position around the simulated aircraft.

22. In a system for simulating an aircraft, the system having a processor, input devices, and a video display for displaying a simulated environment, a method of controlling a simulated aircraft through indicating a desired direction of flight comprising the steps of:

(a) receiving signals from one of the input devices, the signals indicative of a change of the desired direction of flight indicated by a user on a video display by controlling a graphical element on the video display;

(b) calculating in the processor which changes to the simulated aircraft and its control surfaces should be done to align the simulated aircraft with the desired direction of flight;

(c) applying the changes to the simulated aircraft and its control surfaces;

(d) calculating new position and orientation of the simulated aircraft after applying the changes;

(e) simultaneously displaying on the video display a view of the simulated environment and the simulated aircraft; and

(f) repeating steps (a)-(e).

23. An aircraft game system, comprising:

a server hosting game logic;

the server receiving data from a plurality of users, wherein some of the users utilize

(i) a video for presenting a user with a view of a simulated environment;

(ii) modeling means responsive to the desired direction of flight for determining position and orientation of a simulated aircraft;

(iii) wherein the modeling means analyzes which control surface adjustments are needed to make the simulated aircraft fly along the desired direction of flight and modifies a simulated aircraft state to align the aircraft with the desired direction of flight; and

(iv) a plurality of simulated input devices for controlling the desired direction of flight, and

wherein other users utilize a joystick for directly controlling simulated aircraft control surfaces by moving a graphical element on the video device, and aircraft parameters to the server based on the joystick operation.