Integrated Maintenance Training System

The Atlantis Integrated Maintenance Training System (IMTS) is a lot more than just a training system, or a set of maintenance training aids. It is a scalable and versatile training concept for maintenance crews, a high-fidelity, real-time synthetic aircraft environment which looks, feels and responds like a real aircraft for the purposes of maintenance training. IMTS offers realistic, hands-on training in theory of operation, fault location and repair, troubleshooting and routine maintenance with greater flexibility and at a fraction of the cost of training on the actual aircraft, or by other means.

The genesis for IMTS is the F/A-18 Hornet maintenance training system, developed for the Royal Australian Air Force and Canadian Forces. Atlantis engineers worked closely with the customer community to gain a thorough appreciation of the aircraft’s design characteristics as well as the performance requirements of the training system itself. This translated into logical software modules that simulate the responses of the aircraft’s components and subsystems to the level needed to ensure effective training. The result is a maintenance training system that sets industry standards for price and performance.

IMTS Features

• Full free-play simulation provided by authentic dynamic modelling of each aircraft system.
• High-fidelity hardware simulations where required.
• Free-play modelling of aircraft computer systems needed to provide stimuli to systems being trained – for example, the mission computers.
• Interactive video for coverage of aircraft components, maintenance procedures and special tests.
• Simulation of specific test equipment for maximum realism and training effectiveness.
• Interactive instructor terminal(s) for fault introduction and full instructor control of simulation parameters.
• Industry-standard computers and hardware peripherals to meet demanding reliability and training life-cycle cost goals.
• Modular hardware and software for reliability and ease of maintenance.

The IMTS Suite

The makeup of the IMTS suite adopted for training will always depend on the specific training task analysis, leading to instructional systems analysis and design, with accompanying training media selection. With that in mind, Atlantis engineers designed IMTS to be a scalable, flexible system that can be tailored to fit into a maintenance training media selection in a multitude of ways.

The F/A-18 IMTS suite includes an integrated trainer for all aircraft subsystems, including categories such as avionics, fuel, environmental controls, integrated hydraulics, flight controls, armaments and sensors. However, a custom IMTS could be designed to address a subset of aircraft systems, depending on training needs.

IMTS is also scalable from a standalone portable computer implementation for the individual trainee, all the way to a multi-screen, hardware intensive interactive “team training” medium, using large-format interactive displays in a classroom environment. IMTS can include a suite of 3-D simulated test equipment, high-fidelity aircraft replicated sections and other 3-D training aids. If a replicated cockpit is required as part of the IMTS implementation, fidelity can range from representative to very high fidelity, incorporating Head-Up Display (HUD), accurate voice and sound simulation, and even re-targeted mission computer, as required. The simulated cockpit can even be designed to provide stand-alone cockpit procedures training for aircrew, if required.

Simulated test equipment can be provided to create hands-on experience through the use of virtual test apparatus that has the look and feel of the real thing. The aircraft sections, including cockpits and consoles and simulated test equipment can be provided in 2-D or 3-D format with “smart arbitration” by the IMTS kernel for added redundancy, flexibility and throughput considerations.

Benefits of IMTS

Lower acquisition cost: IMTS is revolutionary new technology for maintenance training, and has been purposely designed to be affordable. Its small footprint and total integration of all aircraft systems means that IMTS occupies less real estate in your training facility, while catering for more students and higher output than older technology.

Lower lifecycle cost: maintenance of the trainer is made easier by the use of commercial, off-the-shelf hardware wherever possible, and because the IMTS is largely in the software domain, it is inherently easier to service and support. Updates to the system can be accomplished with very little downtime, and IMTS can be incrementally expanded and extended as training needs change.

Flexibility: IMTS is a truly scalable system, in terms of both the level to which the aircraft systems are represented (fidelity), the number of supported systems and configurations, and the mix of virtual and actual hardware in the training system. Scalability also extends to the delivery system: IMTS can be delivered on everything from individual laptops to classroom environments, thanks to the software architecture.

Built-in redundancy: With “smart arbitration”, IMTS will detect the presence or absence of 3-D hardware, and configure itself with 2-D replicas in the digital domain – meaning that if a 3-D element such as a cockpit replica is being used for another training task, IMTS can seamlessly switch to a graphic 2-D representation of the cockpit for a different training assignment. Individual student or instructor interaction with the 3-D elements (cockpit, test equipment) can be simultaneously viewed on the large screens for class participation, making the logistics of physical demonstration easy to accomplish.

Multiple configurations: IMTS can easily support multiple configurations of the same aircraft platform, a frequent problem experienced during introduction of aircraft system modification programs, or a new aircraft acquisition. By simply flicking a switch, parallel IMTS training sessions on different aircraft can be run simultaneously, expanding the training footprint considerably.

Expanded training uses: IMTS, thanks to the power of today’s PC technology, incorporates the features expected of a modern simulation-based trainer: time acceleration, slow-motion modes, freeze modes, snapshot capability, record/playback features, as well as vector zoom and scaling. The large-format touch screens also feature “digital whiteboard” annotation in multiple colors, digital erasers, and even a print screen capability with an optional color printer. The large screen format option permits integration with supplementary training materials already in use, such as Microsoft® PowerPoint™ slideshows and other Microsoft® Office™ documents.

Training management features: With built-in student management, progress tracking, recording and playback capability, IMTS provides a complete solution, in one convenient, integrated package.