Aerospace Vehicle Motion Simulation with Real-Time Telemetry Data 2024-26-0483

In any aerospace mission, after the vehicle has taken off, the visual is lost and the information about its current state is only through the sensor data telemetered in real-time. Very often, this data is difficult to perceive and analyze. In such cases, a 3D, near to real representation of the data can immensely improve the understanding of the current state of mission and can aid in real-time decision making if possible. Generally, any aerospace vehicle carries onboard an inertial system along with other sensors, which measures the position and attitude of the vehicle. This data is communicated to ground station. The received telemetry data is encoded as bytes and sent as packets through the network using the Universal Datagram Protocol (UDP).  The transmitted data is often available in a very low frequency, which is not desirable for a smooth display. It is therefore necessary to interpolate the data between intervals based on the time elapsed since last rendered frame. Transformations such as translation, rotation as well as mirroring may be required on positions and quaternions. In addition to this, calibration of test data and respective frames is performed to ensure one-to-one correspondence between actual vehicle and the simulation. The terrain is generated from DEM data and satellite imagery.  Animation of flight events such as separations, mechanisms, parachutes, landing gear, etc are rigged and get triggered based on flags in telemetry data. The optimization of code and environment for high and stable frame rates with moderate GPU requirements is another challenging aspect of development of such software. Finally, interfacing with telemetry network and testing of the software in various phases was performed. The developed frame work is useful for UAVs and experimental aircrafts. Further work is ongoing to develop the same for space missions such as launch vehicles and satellites.