Simulink Based Hardware-in-the-Loop Simulator for Rapid Prototyping of UAV Control Algorithms

Abstract

. This paper describes a recently developed architecture for a Hardware-in-the-Loop simulator for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. The principal idea is to use the advanced modeling capabilities of Simulink rather than hard-coded software as the flight dynamics simulating engine. By harnessing Simulink's ability to precisely model virtually any dynamical system or phenomena this newly developed simulator facilitates the development, validation and verification steps of flight control algorithms. Although the presented architecture is used in conjunction with a particular commercial autopilot, the same approach can be easily implemented on a flight platform with a different autopilot. The paper shows the implementation of the flight modeling simulation component in Simulink supported with an interfacing software to a commercial autopilot. This offers the academic community numerous advantages for hardware-in-the-loop simulation of flight dynamics and control tasks. The developed setup has been rigorously tested under a wide variety of conditions. Results from hardware-in-the-loop and real flight tests are presented and compared to validate its adequacy and assess its usefulness as a rapid prototyping tool.

The CAT Vehicle Testbed: A Simulator with Hardware in the Loop for Autonomous Vehicle Applications

“…In some cases, handling and processing of complex data such as point cloud data from a LIDAR using C++ and Python packages prove to be unnecessarily complex and substantially slow down the development process. The Robotics System Toolbox in MATLAB/Simulink provides a component-based solution where existing components from other domains such Control Systems, and Computer Vision can be reused with the Robotics Systems Toolbox to speed up the development time [18,11]. Simulink provides model-based design with the drag and drop feature.…”

Hardware-in-the-loop development system for rotary-wing/fixed-wing UAVs

“…These simulators have long been used for rapid prototyping of flight control systems in missiles, helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft [2]. Their wide adoption is mainly due to the fact that adequate simulation allows to save time and money when compared to real flight tests [3].…”

“…The core of the HIL simulator in software part is the mathematical models built in Simulink and the most important part of the mathematical models is the flight dynamics model. Numerous works have been published addressing the issue of adequate modeling of aero-dynamics and flight characteristics [2].…”

Position Control of Vtol System Using Anfis via Hardware in the Loop

“…This method is also known as Hardware in the Loop (HIL). The use of HIL using MATLAB has been done by [18,19,20]. All conclude that HIL can be used for fast prototyping.…”