Various levels of Simulation for Slybird MAV using Model Based Design

Autonomous and remotely controlled Micro Aerial Vehicles (MAVs) have gained a high level of popularity during the last decade both in civilian and military applications. National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL) has been carrying out research and development activities on various supporting technologies crucial for the development of MAVs thereby enhancing the performance of the vehicle to accomplish various missions. NAL Slybird is a mini-unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) developed by NAL. Its primary users will be police and the military services. Design & implementation of an autopilot in such systems assumes the next priority in achieving an autonomously flying MAV. An essential requirement to achieve the above goal is through a suitable modeling & simulation platform. Thus, this presentation takes the audience through the strategies developed for performing various levels of MAV simulation. The following levels of simulation are performed for Slybird MAV using MATLAB/Simulink: • Open Loop Simulation (OLS) • Model In the Loop Simulation (MILS) • Software In the Loop Simulation (SILS) • Processor In the Loop Simulation (PILS) • Hardware In the Loop Simulation (HILS) The OLS responses are validated with actual flight data and results will be shown. The MILS and SILS include various subsystems such as estimator, path planning and control algorithms all developed in SIMULINK. Demonstration of PILS for Slybird MAV using open source mission planner software and ARDU autopilot (APM 2.6) will also be performed. The HILS architecture discussed in this presentation is a demonstration of rapid prototyping technique using RTWT and XPC Target.