UAV Avionics "Hardware in the Loop" Simulator

The avionics systems, especially the flight management and control systems, are some of the most critical elements of any aircraft, more so for an autonomous aircraft. Testing these systems in a realistic synthetic environment is an important process. It is logical therefore, to develop a suitable simulation environment in which the avionics systems can be tested. It is desirable for this system to be easy to implement, cost effective and representative of the aircraft being simulated. This paper discusses the development of such a simulation system, known as the Aircraft Simulation And Testing Environment (ASATE). ASATE is the continuation of work initiated in 2001 for the testing of avionics developed as part of the QUT UAV project. ASATE incorporates commercially available software packages including X-Plane for the flight visualisation and Matlab Simulink for the implementation of the dynamic flight model, sensor models and control algorithms. The mission management computer and other systems including the flight control system, are connected to the Simulink/X-Plane systems via ASATE. ASATE provides the means for designers to construct mission and control algorithms and to test the avionics hardware and software systems in real time, by simulating full missions, with realistic visual feedback of the aircraft’s response. ASATE has been successfully employed to verify the flight management system and the flight control system of the QUT UAV. A set of control system tutorials, based on ASATE, have also been developed to assist in the teaching of flight control systems at QUT. This paper describes the development of ASATE and its usage for simulating aircraft missions (excluding takeoff and landing) and as an educational tool for students.