The DaveMLTranslator: An Interface for DAVE-ML Aerodynamic Models

It can take weeks or months to incorporate a new aerodynamic model into a vehicle simulation and validate the performance of the model. The Dynamic Aerospace Vehicle Exchange Markup Language (DAVE-ML) has been proposed as a means to reduce the time required to accomplish this task by defining a standard format for typical components of a flight dynamic model. The purpose of this paper is to describe an object-oriented C++ implementation of a class that interfaces a vehicle subsystem model specified in DAVE-ML and a vehicle simulation. Using the DaveMLTranslator class, aerodynamic or other subsystem models can be automatically imported and verified at run-time, significantly reducing the elapsed time between receipt of a DAVE-ML model and its integration into a simulation environment. The translator performs variable initializations, data table lookups, and mathematical calculations for the aerodynamic build-up, and executes any embedded static check-cases for verification. The implementation is efficient, enabling real-time execution. Simple interface code for the model inputs and outputs is the only requirement to integrate the DaveMLTranslator as a vehicle aerodynamic model. The translator makes use of existing table-lookup utilities from the Langley Standard Real-Time Simulation in C++ (LaSRS++). The design and operation of the translator class is described and comparisons with existing, conventional, C++ aerodynamic models of the same vehicle are given.