Rapid Development of Realistic UAV Simulations

Rapid Development of Realistic UAV Simulations

Abstract

Instrument Control Sweden (ICS) is a software company that develops NATO STANAG 4586 compatible ground station software for control of unmanned systems such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). To perform testing and demonstration of the ground station software ICS needs a realistic UAV simulator that implements the STANAG 4586 protocol. This thesis studies what methods are best suited for the rapid development of such a simulator. One goal with the project was to examine what existing flight simulator systems and flight dynamics models can be used to rapidly develop a UAV simulator. Another goal was to design and implement such a simulator. It is found that it‟s possible to quickly develop a UAV simulator based on existing projects such as the flight simulator FlightGear, the simulation framework OpenEaagles and the flight dynamics model (FDM) JSBSim. The design of the simulator is modular, object-oriented and features real-time design techniques. The main application is a simulation of a Vehicle Specific Module, which implements the STANAG 4586 protocol. Another module based on the OpenEaagles framework simulates the aircraft and its subsystems. A third module consists of the JSBSim FDM and simulates the flight dynamics and movements of the aircraft under the forces and moments affecting it.

Introduction

Background Instrument Control Sweden (ICS) is a small company located in Linköping. ICS develops ground station software for the control of unmanned systems. To perform testing and demonstration of the ground station software ICS wants to use a program that simulates an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). Purpose The purpose of the project is to examine what methods are best suited for rapidly developing realistic UAV simulations, and to develop a UAV simulator program. The simulator program needs to simulate a UAV as realistic as possible. This means that the program must simulate realistic flight dynamics. Common UAV functionality also needs to be implemented. This includes functionality to control the aircraft both by manual steering (Flight Director mode) as well as in autonomous modes (Waypoint and Loiter modes). The program needs to be able to communicate with ground stations in the same way that a real UAV would. To accomplish this the program needs to simulate a Vehicle Specific Module and implement the STANAG 4586 protocol. Delimitations It is important for ICS that some parts of the simulator project must not be open source. Therefore existing code that is licensed such that it requires the whole project to be open source must not be used. This is because ICS‟ commercial STANAG 4586 SDK is used in the development of the simulator software. To ensure compatibility with the framework, ICS wants part of the project to be developed in C# with Visual Studio as development environment. The simulator software does not need to provide functionality for landing the simulated aircraft, or taking off from the ground. The time frame for the project is two and half months. Because of this, an already existing flight dynamics model (FDM) must be used.

Rapid Development of Realistic UAV Simulations

Chapters: 1 - 5
Delivery: Email

Number of Pages: 75

Price: 5000 NGN

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