A Gimbaled Platform for Micro Aerial Vehicle Autopilot Simulation and Calibration

Abstract : This report describes a 3-degrees-of-freedom gimbaled platform designed to be used as a hardware in the loop simulator. This platform is designed to aid in the calibration and synchronization of micro aerial vehicles' autopilot components. This platform can also be used as a simulator allowing the autopilot to fly a computer model of the airframe. This allows for the quick and efficient verification of autopilot behavior with different airframes under various weather conditions within the lab.