Flight control system with tactile feedback

Claim 1

An aircraft flight controller system providing a human operator with visual primary flight control information and tactile secondary flight control information supplementary to the visual primary flight control comprising the combination of: a primary information human operator vision based and noise input forcing function f D (t) signal inclusive closed feedback loop aircraft dynamics plant controlling apparatus, said apparatus including, an aircraft dynamics plant means output, θ(t) signal, to target input forcing function, F T (t) signal, difference error based visual display having plant position display e(t) signal, output to said human operator, a human operator force and secondary information tactile feedback force operated control stick including a predetermined stick mechanical impedance characteristic and integration means for converting stick velocity signals to stick position signals, and aircraft dynamics plant for generating said output θ(t) signal, said aircraft dynamics plant means including said F D (t) noise forcing signal as an input thereto; a secondary information tactile signal feedback path having said aircraft dynamics plant means output θ(t) signal and said control stick position output signal as inputs thereto, and a secondary information force signal output connected with said control stick, and a transfer function defined by the mathematical relationship 1/P.sup.N (1/P-s.S SIMP) wherein P represents the aircraft dynamics plant transfer function N represents a feedback determination variable having possible values of zero and one, s represents the Laplace transform operator, and S IMP represents the impedance of said control stick.