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Virtual reality flight simulator

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Vol. 9/No. 1 (2017) INTERNETWORKING INDONESIA JOURNAL 21

Virtual Reality Flight Simulator

Kelvin Valentino, Kevin Christian, and Endra Joelianto, Member, IEEE

that can be used in these circumstances [1]. If the simulator is

Abstract— Flight simulators are currently used to train effective, then an hour of training in a simulator could replace
prospective pilots who will fly aircrafts. However, the flight an hour, or even several hours training in an aircraft. A flight
simulator usually need more space, more budgets, and another simulator should be made as closely as possible to the real
things so that the simulator can be operated as similar as possible
to a real aircraft. Responding to the challenges that faced today
situation they would have when riding a plane. Even a flight
and going into the era of portable that permeated whenever and simulator can be used too for research and simulation for new
wherever, in this paper, it is developed a virtual reality flight model of an aircraft. Another advantage is unpolluted
simulator. The virtual reality flight simulator is intended to act as environment, where in one flight, the burning of kerosene will
the conventional flight simulator that simulates the environment be reduced so that the air is not polluted. And a simulator will
of real flight. In addition, it can be used anywhere and anytime. give financial benefit which cost is much lower that an actual
The paper presents virtual reality, flight simulator, and
programming process of virtual reality flight simulator. Flight flight [2].
simulator using virtual reality is able to provide strong sensations Along with the development of technologies, where all
like being in a plane cockpit. devices (gadgets) can be taken anywhere and at any time, it
will be more convenient if a simulator is able to be used
Index Terms— flight simulator, aircraft model, virtual reality, portable. This could be used from young children to adults,
mobile learning even for pilots. Where flight simulator is commonly used, even
become a part of curricula, in flight school [3]. All in all, the
I. INTRODUCTION cost of building a full-scale flight simulator facility is so much

T HIS day, simulators are widely used in a variety of

things in human life, especially in areas that require
special skills which can only be obtained through practices or
higher than building it in a virtual reality device. The presence
of virtual reality features into this world of technology makes
the future of the simulator could develop to this stage. Virtual
hours of flying time. The use of simulators is a very effective reality world is still developing and it starts bustling used by
method of learning to know the functions and workings of a many people. However, to enter into the world of the
tool or a unit, especially for novice. By using the simulator, the simulator, at the moment there are not many people wearing it
learner will be able to use the tools or the original unit much and still not developed much. Therefore, in this paper, it is
better than before. In field of aviation, especially in pilot attempted to take this momentum by designing a flight
training, a pilot needs to carefully know the right procedures to simulator in virtual reality technologies.
operate an aircraft, the uses of each panel or tools. The
advantage of using a simulator compared to actual flight is the A. Flight Simulator
flight simulator gives a better safety, in which in the simulator, A flight simulator is a device that recreates an aircraft and
pilots can even try many scenarios of unusual or even life- its environment or any events where it flies. It is a world where
threatening events, and in some cases an event which required someone who wants to become a pilot, or someone who just
a specific flight condition that rarely happens, can be simulate wants to learn how to drive a plane, or just to play without
so pilot will have a better knowledge when taking a real flight having to use the original plane. In this case, the flight
so the pilot has better approaches and do the best procedure simulator is very important for the learning of prospective
pilots or airline pilots. To support this pilot prospective study,
the flight simulator should be made as closely as possible to
Manuscript received September 9, 2016. This work was supported in by
the Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education of the Republic
the real situation they would have when riding a plane. In this
of Indonesia under the Decentralized Research Program on Excellent manner, this device needs to include equations of how an
Research University, Bandung Institute of Technology, Bandung, Indonesia aircraft is flying, how flight controls react when it is triggered,
2016. effects of other aircraft systems, and reaction of aircraft to
K. Valentino is with the Engineering Physics Study Program, Faculty of
Industrial Technology, Bandung Institute of Technology, Indonesia (e-mail: external factors such as damping, gravity, air density,
valentino.kelvin1@gmail.com). turbulence, etc.
K. Christian is with the Engineering Physics Study Program, Faculty of In a flight simulator, it is presented some of the best models
Industrial Technology, Bandung Institute of Technology, Indonesia (e-mail:
kevin.c0993@gmail.com). that each plane has its own character and its specifications.
E. Joelianto is with the Instrumentation and Control Research Group, Generally, if a prospective new pilot learns to ride a plane,
Faculty of Industrial Technology, Bandung Institute of Technology, Indonesia then the plane chosen is usually the best Cessna 182 because
(corresponding author, e-mail: ejoel@tf.itb.ac.id).
the plane is the most frequently used by someone who first

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22 INTERNETWORKING INDONESIA JOURNAL VALENTINO ET AL.

learned and also has a relatively affordable price for most such as center of gravity in object. Unity also supports the
laymen that laypeople also sometimes have the aircraft. Some creation of a virtual reality game so that the game becomes
other models are often used in the world of flight simulator is more real and more real as well as what to expect in a virtual
the Air Force, Army, and Navy. A military air force would reality. Inside the unity, there is a programming language used,
often practice for driving a fighter by first using a flight namely C#. The language is familiar to someone already
simulator beforehand so it can be more proficient and is used knows the programming language C or C ++ programming
in an exercise using an actual plane. Even this has become a languages.
regulation, such as in Federal Aviation Administration, for
pilot to adapt in flight [4]. simulator.

II. STAGES OF PREPARATION

B. Virtual Reality
In the development of virtual reality flight simulator, we set
Virtual reality (VR) is a new technology that is being
up the hardware and software consisting of
developed, which included softwares that give illustrations and
• Samsung Galaxy S7
also sound similar as possible as if it was in the world given.
a. Android Marshmallow v6.0.1
The virtual reality gives priority to the visual perception of
b.Chipset Exynos 8890 Octacore (4x2.3 GHz Mongoose
each user, so as to create strong imagination of moving
& 4x1.6 GHz Cortex-A53)
pictures and sound presented by the software. Or you can just
c. 4GB RAM
say it like a window or a gate to look into a new world, a
d.32 Internal Memory
virtual world. Virtual reality is used by using a special tool
e. Virtual reality support
fastened to the head, and then we watch a show that is
presented inside a special device. Such tools are usually have
specially adapted screen field of vision with our eyes so we
can see it clearly. In this virtual reality, a person is able to look
around in the virtual world, can also interact with the
surrounding, supported the use of headphones create an
atmosphere like being entered into the virtual world. The
support is obtained due to sensors that are needed in the world
of virtual reality like a gyroscope sensor, proximity, and also
an accelerometer, so the ability to interact with the virtual
world could be more exciting again.
The VR technology has leaded to many research and
development, such on education: as to assist teachers in Fig 1. Samsung Galaxy S7
teaching students about optical waves [5][6], to teach in
medical class that provides great advantage for medical interns • Samsung Galaxy Gear VR
to enter medical field [7], to teach anatomy for students so
they can be familiar with it, which saves a great expense in
experimental materials [8], to teach more effectively about
sign language because the students are in 3D domain [9], to
educate and training to hydrogen fuel station staff by
constructing various scenarios that could happen on 3D VR
platform so the staff could understand better the standard of Fig 2. Samsung Galaxy Gear VR
handling process and troubleshooting in an accident [10]. It
has also been used in learning vehicle simulation platform, • Gamepad
which used to developed driver skills for security verification
test platforms [10][11][12][13].
C. Unity
Unity is a software to create a game that will be distributed
to the public. Unity has also been widely used by developers to
create games based on Android, Windows, Apple, etc. Unity
Fig 3. Gamepad
can be used by anyone for a variety of purposes, ranging from
personal purposes, learning purposes, until the purposes in • Laptop with specifications:
commercial terms. This software is very supportive of making a. Processor intel i3
games in three dimensions so that the game is made more real b. Ram 4GB
taste. And for realistic purpose, Unity has physics element c. Hard disk 500GB
Vol. 9/No. 1 (2017) INTERNETWORKING INDONESIA JOURNAL 23

• Software Unity Personal Edition

In this case, the ability of the software on the laptop is still

very limited in comparison with the developers who have
already made and also developed their game or simulator.

III. STAGE OF CONSTRUCTION

First, for the software, it requires us to have Unity program.
Unity Personal Edition is sufficient to make a prototype of this
virtual reality flight simulator. And then we need some specific
assets files that will be used in the construction of this virtual
reality flight simulator. For example of this assets files is a 3D
models of an aircraft, codes, objects, and many else.
The process of making this flight simulator has two parallel
steps. The first step is making the flight model, such as 3D
aircraft model and the environment. In this software, we create
Fig 4. Workflow of computing equation of motions
a simple landscape with a single road, trees, valleys and hills
for the flight test. For the 3D model, Unity has a basic model
After the process of building a terrain and movement, the
of Cessna aircraft to be used.
next is rendering the game. The rendering process of the
After building the flight environment, we develop scripts for
simulator takes a long time, it takes until 25 hours to complete
the input controller of the 3D model aircraft. For this
rendering the simulator. This rendering time is depending to
controller, we use one-handed gamepad which have two index
compatibility of computer that is used and how large space the
buttons and a control stick. The upper button functioned as
flight model used. After rendering, it will form of an .apk file
reset button and the lower button functioned as throttle. The
which is the base application of the Android. After that, the
control stick functioned to control the movement direction of
apk file is ready to be installed in the intended gadget and
the aircraft. Also can be controlled by moving of our head. If
ready to be used to play as the flight simulator. Overall, the
our head looks to the right, our plane will turn right too and if
stages of construction are shown in Fig 5 that describes the
our head looks to the left, our plane will turn left too.
work flow of making the virtual reality flight simulator.
The movement of the 3D model aircraft needs to be as
actual as it can. We need to implement the equations of
motions of the Cessna 182. First, we compute the aerodynamic
coefficients of the aircraft, such as the angle of attack and
sideslip. Then, with the result of computation of aerodynamic
coefficients, we compute aerodynamic forces and moments.
These forces and moments are combined with the computation
from moments and forces generated from engine to compute
the body frame of linear and angular accelerations. These
accelerations are integrated to form the body frame linear
velocities and the body frame rates. The steps to prepare the
script shown in following diagram (Fig 4).

Fig 5. Workflow of the construction

IV. RESULTS
Fig. 6 shows how the process to play the virtual reality flight
simulator. The results of the game are a plane that can go and
it will fly. The plane is also controlled using a gamepad that
has been programmed. The results for the flight simulator are
shown in the following figures. The flight simulator was

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24 INTERNETWORKING INDONESIA JOURNAL VALENTINO ET AL.

simulated in a computer, because in the gadget, the screenshot

cannot be taken. However, the simulation is similar to the
gadget. The results of game are given in Fig. 8, Fig. 9, Fig. 10,
Fig. 11. In Fig. 8, the airplane is in stand by position and ready
to take off. In Fig. 9, the airplane is taking off and flying to
another place until in Fig. 10, the airplane flies into outer
border of terrain. In Fig. 11, the airplane tries to fly to another
terrain. This flight simulator in virtual reality can make a
sensation during take-off and landing, because of the
difference in the current conditions on the runway and while
on the sky. The performances of the development process of
the virtual reality flight simulator is summarized in Table 1.
Fig 8. Airplane Taking Off Process
TABLE I
PERFORMANCE OF VIRTUAL REALITY FLIGHT SIMULATOR GAME
Rendering 25 hours
Duration of Simulation 4 hours
Frame per Seconds 75 frame per seconds

Fig 9. Airplane Fly to Outer Border of Terrain

Fig 6. Architecture of Virtual Reality Flight Simulator

Fig 10. Airplane Flying to Another Terrain

V. CONCLUSION
In this paper, a virtual reality flight simulator was developed
successfully to simulate the flying of the airplane with a simple
flight dynamics, limited terrain and objects. It gives great
perspective of flying in mid-air. The virtual reality flight
simulator was not a complete and powerful flight simulators as
Fig 7. Airplane Standby the actual airplane flight dynamics were not incorporated into
the developed program. In other words, virtual reality flight
simulator which is a new technology for virtual environments
allows one to interact with the environment generated by the
computer. The weakness in this virtual reality flight simulator
is different gestures used for a normal flight (joystick, pedal,
button, etc), it still needs a better facility for having an
experience that are closed to the real experience. So it should
be a semi-portable devices to ensure a better experience. For
the next stage, the complex flight dynamics of the airplane are
Vol. 9/No. 1 (2017) INTERNETWORKING INDONESIA JOURNAL 25

going to be included with better terrains and more realistic 2007. He was a Visiting Scholar in the Telecommunication and Information
Technology Institute (TITR), University of Wollongong, NSW, Australia in
plane object.
February 2002. He was a Visiting Scholar in the Smart Robot Center,
Department of Aerospace and Information Engineering, Konkuk University,
Seoul, Korea in October 2010. His research interest includes hybrid control
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Kelvin Valentino is a student at the Engineering Physics Study Program,

Faculty of Industrial Technology, Bandung Institute of Technology, Bandung,
Indonesia. He is working on a virtual reality project at the Intelligent Control
and Automation Laboratory, Engineering Physics Study Program, Faculty of
Industrial Technology, Bandung Institute of Technology, Bandung, Indonesia.

Kevin Christian is a student at the Engineering Physics Study Program,

Faculty of Industrial Technology, Bandung Institute of Technology, Bandung,
Indonesia. He is working on a virtual reality project at the Intelligent Control
and Automation Laboratory, Engineering Physics Study Program, Faculty of
Industrial Technology, Bandung Institute of Technology, Bandung, Indonesia.

Endra Joelianto (M’01) received his B.Eng. degree in Engineering Physics

from Institute of Technology Bandung (ITB), Indonesia in 1990, and his
Ph.D. degree in Engineering from The Australian National University (ANU),
Australia in 2002.
He was a Research Assistant in the Instrumentation and Control
Laboratory, Department of Engineering Physics, Bandung Institute
Technology, Indonesia from 1990-1995. Since 1999, he has been with the
Department of Engineering Physics, Bandung Institute of Technology,
Bandung, Indonesia, where he is currently a Senior Lecturer. He has been a
Senior Research Fellow in the Centre for Unmanned System Studies
(CENTRUMS), Bandung Institute of Technology, Bandung, Indonesia since

ISSN: 1942-9703 / © 2017 IIJ

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