From car to helicopter
From car to helicopter
The researchers at the DLR Robotics and Mechatronics Center have been working on a simulator based on industrial robots since 2004. In 2010 they succeeded in interactively implementing flight on the robotic arm. The passengers no longer flew on predefined flight paths – they could control the capsule themselves. "For us, this means that the movements of the robotic arm have to be computed in real time – in other words really quickly – because they cannot be planned in advance," explains Bellmann. In 2011 the robotic arm received a new 'cockpit', inside which instruments could be swapped over as necessary: an aircraft control yoke, a steering wheel for a car, or helicopter flight controls. By refitting the cabin, the simulator was at times converted into the interior of a car, an aircraft or a helicopter – although the robotic arm and dome always stood in the test hall at the DLR facility in Oberpfaffenhofen.
