Hardware-in-the-loop Testbed for Autopilot Development using Flight Simulation and Parallel Kinematics

Stephan Schulz, Hagen Hasberg, Rene Büscher
2020 Zenodo  
This paper presents a testbed for Hardware-in-the-loop stimulation of flight controllers and their sensors in a real-time simulation environment. The framework is especially designed for the development of flight control systems for small unmanned aerial vehicles. The testbed integrates the real-time stimulation of motion sensors by a Stewart platform using the attitude of the simulated aircraft from a real-time flight simulation. Compared to an isolated HIL simulation of a flight controller,
more » ... is methodology allows simultaneous closed-loop testing of an embedded system with sensors and a flight controller. The robustness of the testbed with a self-developed flight control system for different sensors will be demonstrated in this work. The testbed of a flight simulator with a remotely controlled motion platform will be characterized regarding timing considerations. The applicability for autonomous virtual flight testing using waypoint navigation with a real-time flight controller will be demonstrated.
doi:10.5281/zenodo.3757918 fatcat:cta67prcsrckxonx2qaot6dlhm