Title: Development of autopilot control algorithm for an unmanned aerial vehicle based on simulation

Authors: Masri Hakiki; Hao Liu; Jae-Cheon Lee

Addresses: National Institute of Aeronautics and Space (LAPAN) and RISET-Pro, Jakarta, Indonesia ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Keimyung University, Daegu, South Korea ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Keimyung University, Daegu, South Korea

Abstract: 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.

Keywords: unmanned aerial vehicle; autopilot control algorithm; software-in-the-loop; co-simulation; PID control.

DOI: 10.1504/IJVAS.2022.133021

International Journal of Vehicle Autonomous Systems, 2022 Vol.16 No.2/3/4, pp.222 - 245

Received: 03 Jun 2022
Received in revised form: 14 Jan 2023
Accepted: 16 May 2023
Published online: 24 Aug 2023 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article