A software framework for the rapid and accurate development of UAV

Abstract

In this paper, we provide a set of tools to support the development of navigation, guidance, arid control algoritimis for unmanned aerial vehicles. More precisely, the final goal is to build a friendly programming framework for supporting hardware-in-The-loop simulations. The possibility to run the generated code directly on the target device can provide a feasible way to verify and validate the performance of the various control components without requiring the real flight tests. For this reason, this technique reduces the development time and cost, eliminates the risk of crashes, while making use of the control system that will be employed in the final implementation. The work first presents a preliminary analysis of existing solutions and possible simulator architectures. A more specific analysis of the target device under interest is carried out. Hardware capabilities and limits are discussed to verify the feasibility of the hardware-in-The-loop simulation.