Development of autopilot control algorithm for an unmanned aerial vehicle based on simulation
M Irsyad Hakiki, Hao Liu, Jae Cheon Lee · International Journal of Vehicle Autonomous Systems · 2022
This paper presents design of an autopilot control algorithm for a novel type of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) with configuration of two wings, X-tailplane and double propulsion systems. Contributions of the paper are to present how to develop autopilot control algorithm for this type UAV, by using longitudinal and lateral controllers, and how to validate the control algorithm via co-simulation method. The detailed design of controlling pitch angle, forward speed, altitude and roll motion is described at first. And then a co-simulation by using Matlab/Simulink and X-Plane based on Software-In-the-Loop (SIL) is built to implement the control algorithm for validation. Two flying missions are designed and executed to investigate control performance and tracking performance along the waypoint course. Simulation results show that the designed autopilot control system can effectively control flying specifications and guide the novel UAV following the designated waypoint course.