Intelligent Flight Control System

Intelligent Flight Control System (IFCS) a realistically modeled control system that assists the pilot in operating a spacecraft within the Star Citizen flight simulation. The flight simulation itself is a 6 degree-of-freedom, rigid body Newtonian model. Within this simulation, ship motion is induced by its thrusters, with each individual thruster generating a limited amount of force at its mount point. Depending on the direction of a thruster and its mount point relative to the ship’s center of mass, each thruster will generate both a force and torque on the ship. The sum of all such forces and torques will determine the ship’s linear and rotational acceleration at any moment. Even under ideal conditions, such a complex system is difficult to control without assistance. In the real world, a pilot would rely on a control system to translate his or her input into the actual thruster activity that would deliver the requested control with both accuracy and stability.