Experimental Reliability Analysis of Multi-UAV Simulation with TMO-Based Distributed Architecture and Global Time Synchronization

Abstract

In developing multi-UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) system, a simulation environment is essential to verify the functionalities of the whole system with higher productivity and reduced risks of accidents. Simulations of multi-UAV systems are usually accomplished by using distributed systems where multiple standalone simulators are connected via a network. Thus, in order to achieve an improved reality in such distributed simulation environments, the whole multi-UAV simulator should be guaranteed real-time and synchronized behaviors among the connected systems. In this paper, we discuss about the necessity of two important real-time features, i.e., the periodicity of computations and the clock synchronization among standalone simulators. We also propose an architecture based on TMO(Time-triggered and Message-triggered Object) model as a multi-UAV simulation platform with our preliminary experimental results showing its potential feasibilities.