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Professor P.R. Grant
University of Toronto
Institute for Aerospace Studies
4925 Dufferin St., Ontario, Canada M3H 5T6
Phone: +1-416-667-7726
Fax: +1-416-667-7799
Email: prgrant (at_sign) utias.utoronto.ca
Web: Click Here
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Professor Grant’s research areas include flight dynamics, flight simulation, the virtual flight test facility, and human control of vehicles. His current research is focused on the development of ground-based simulators for upset recovery training, the impact of structural flexibility on aircraft handling qualities and modeling of human motion perception and control. Professor Grant has also been actively involved in driving simulation research and has written motion drive software for the US National Advanced Driving simulator, as well as for Toyota’s state-of-the-art dynamic driving simulator.
Aircraft safety is the primary motivation for Professor Grant’s research. First, a large percentage of commercial aircraft accidents are triggered by unexpected aircraft upsets. Due to the fidelity limitations of current flight simulators and safety concerns in real aircraft, pilots have very little training on how to successfully recover from upset conditions. The current upset recovery project is studying ways to improve simulators such that meaningful training can take place. Second, environmental concerns are leading to new aircraft designs that are likely to have: (i) increased structural flexibility compared to previous designs, (ii) unconventional dynamic behavior. The aircraft flexibility project is aimed at understanding how aircraft flexibility will affect the pilot’s ability to precisely and safely control the aircraft. Professor Grant’s research group is also investigating the handling qualities of unconventional aircraft designs such as the blended-wing body (BWB). Although closed-loop control can modify the BWB dynamic response such that it is similar to a conventional aircraft, it is still important to understand how pilots will interact with the bare-airframe dynamic response of these new aircraft.
The UTIAS Flight Research Simulator is one of a few university owned motion-based flight simulators in the world. It allows the researchers at UTIAS to experimentally validate improvements in simulator fidelity and it can act as a surrogate for new aircraft designs, thereby allowing researchers to measure human control behavior/performance while flying simulations of these new designs in a virtual environment. In addition, the simulator enables the group’s ongoing investigation into a basic understanding of human motion perception and control.
Recently completed projects include the following. A real-time flexible aircraft model and a simulator motion drive algorithm for flexible aircraft were developed and tested as part of the flexible aircraft handling qualities project. The motion algorithm ensures the motions associated with aircraft flexing are reproduced faithfully by the simulator motion system so that the impact of this motion on human control can be studied. As part of the upset recovery project, the UTIAS Boeing 747 flight model has been extended to large angles of attack such as those encountered during aircraft upsets. A recent human motion perception study by Professor Grant’s group found that the perceived strength of translational motion could be influenced by jerk (the time derivative of acceleration). The results of this study help to explain some unusual findings from some previous simulator studies where jerk levels in the simulator were grossly exaggerated relative to the actual aircraft.