A constructive landing signals officer for conducting pilot training in a Sea King helicopter deck landing simulator

A low cost Virtual Reality (VR) training simulator, consisting of a six-degree of freedom motion platform coupled to a commercial head mounted VR display system, is being developed at the Defence Research and Development Centre - Toronto (DRDC Toronto) to conduct training for Sea King helicopter operations aboard a Canadian patrol frigate. In a team training environment, such as that experienced during shipboard helicopter operations, it is necessary to involve several individuals in their operational capacities in order to conduct training for a single helicopter pilot. To compliment the training objectives for a Sea King pilot the feasibility of producing a software agent to replace the role the Landing Signals Officer (LSO) plays in assisting the pilot during Helicopter free deck landing operations is examined. An LSO acts essentially as a second pilot outside the aircraft, judging the motion of the helicopter and ship, and providing feedback to the pilot in terms of position corrections and the precise moment to land. To aid in the development of a prototype software agent, a simulator test-bed at the Royal Military College of Canada (RMC) was designed and implemented. The work done on the simulator test-bed resulted in the development of a prototype intelligent agent that utilises current Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques to simulate the role the LSO plays. To validate the performance of the prototype, testing was conducted utilising an experienced Sea King Pilot and the VR trainer developed at DRDC Toronto. The results analysed indicated that the prototype LSO agent was capable of providing the type of feedback necessary for the pilot to conduct free deck landings aboard a Canadian patrol frigate. Parameters that affected the design and performance of the prototype are discussed and their applications to future development of an in-service LSO agent are presented.