Design and Implementation of a Hardware-in-the-loop Simulator for Helicopter Cable Orientation Control System

We present in the paper the design of a hardware-in-the-loop simulation framework and its actual implementation on imitating cable orientation control system of a helicopter. Real-time hardware-in-the-loop simulation is one of the most effective methods for the verification of the performance and reliability of the cable orientation control law before conducting actual flight tests. In our proposed framework, several modules, which include machine frame, man-machine interface and software, are integrated together to realize the hardware-in-the-loop simulation. The effectiveness of the constructed hardware-in-the-loop simulator is demonstrated by several simulations, which show that the guided cable is able to successfully reach the desired target with acceptable tracking errors.