Integral Framework for UAV: Navigational and Wireless Connectivity Aspects

Field tests in the early stages of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) applications into real-world scenarios are challenging and time-consuming, especially in urban and irregular terrains with harsh environmental conditions where human safety is an utmost concern. This paper focuses on the development of an integral framework that includes navigational and wireless link aspects for different terrains and environmental conditions. The proposed framework is based on the integration of ROS, Gazebo, and Matlab. Simulations of UAVs are performed in urban and irregular terrain scenarios considering different environmental conditions like rain, and fog. Signal Strength and Bit Error Rate are studied for different environmental conditions. Results and observations from this work show that wireless link aspects with respect to different terrains and environmental conditions can be better analyzed with the proposed integral simulation framework.