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Abstract

This presentation shows that existing civil light helicopters can be augmented to achieve dynamics and handling qualities suitable for PAVs. Furthermore, a novel haptic trainer is presented, which can teach pilots how to stabilise a PAV helicopter in case of automation failure. The haptic trainer is suitable for flight simulators and is based on control algorithms that adaptively vary the intensity of the haptic force on pilot control devices, until the simulator behaves like a real (unaugmented) helicopter. Experiments show that naïve pilots can stabilise the unaugmented helicopter after two hours of training. This haptic trainer could be a timesaving tool for simulator training of PAV and helicopter pilots.