Design of Controllers Applied to Autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Using Software In The Loop

Abstract

This paper presents the design of the altitude controller of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) based on the data acquired from the Software in the Loop (SITL). More specifically, the developed methodology permits to describe a test procedure where an algorithm or even a control strategy can be designed and validated based on the physical model of the system. In this way, the PID controller with a technique known as Successive Loop Closure is designed. The paper also shows how to establish a remote communication with the quadcopter using all the versatility of the Software in the Loop (SITL) in combination with a Ground Control Station and Dronekit developing tool. Finally, the flight simulation tests show that the designed controller was able to reach a stable flight with its performance evaluated through non-intrusive performance indexes and analysis of the system response in the time domain.