August 22, 2013

The Arduino-Pneumatic Flight Simulator

For some realising the dream of becoming a pilot can be just a little too away, due to other commitments or the outright cost. (If you think plane tickets are expensive, try paying for lessons). But I digress. Therefore some continue with their hobby by creating incredibly realistic simulators that can be used at home or elsewhere, generally involving multiple monitors, real controllers and so on... however they miss out on the actual simulation of motion - until now. 

A senior high school student Dominick Lee, with the help of his physics prfessor Dr. Bert Pinsky have created a device that holds the pilot and moves them around with the aid of a pneumatic compressed-air system. Their device can move the pilot over two degrees of freedom, and the required motion data is captured using special software running on the PC with the flight simulator software - with successful results:


If you hadn't seen the video, you really wouldn't have believed it was possible. But it is, and you can make your own starting from here. And for more, we're on twitter and Google+, so follow us for news and product updates as well. 

 If you're new to Arduino and want to join the fun, the first step is a solid board for your projects - our Freetronics Eleven - the Arduino-Uno compatible with low-profile USB socket, onboard prototyping space and easy to view LEDs: 

  


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