Improved modular UAV autopilot simulator for Pinguin BE aircraft

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) is a tremendous popular field that will transform probably our life way in the near future. It has large civilian and military applications such as exploration, rescue, control, agriculture, health, person service and so on. The main purpose of this work is to adapt and experiment an advanced UAV autopilot from taking off, through cruise to landing for medium and small size UAV type. As big calculation capacity of miniature and low cost CPU is nowadays more and more available, we could use more developed algorithms and controllers than PID or equivalent. For the considered UAV, a nonlinear mathematical model is tailored from the literature with a feedback linearization technique law. To reduce significantly the wind gusts affecting the UAV trajectory behavior, a robust control is applied. A viewable lab-based simulator with Matlab Software is implemented. To determine the tracking performance of the UAV, we consider a given closed loop trajectory predefined with a list of 3D way-points. A modular strategy has guided the implementation of the simulator, allowing easy UAV parameter changing including aero dynamical mathematical model. This work investigates a new guidance strategy for medium and small aircraft, and presents very promising results of extensive empirical tests dealing with the parameter variation in the control framework.