Novel SiL evaluation of an optimal H∞ controller on the stability of a MAV in flight simulator

This paper introduces a novel methodology to assist the evaluation of control algorithms for MAVs (Micro Aerial Vehicles) using Software-in-the-Loop (SiL) based flight simulation. The originality of this paper is to use ©Microsoft Flight Simulator (MSFS) as the environment to embed both the dynamic and graphic models of ©Ascending Technologies Pelican MAV flying robot. The resulting is a reliable model of the Pelican quadrotor. The full duplex communication between the virtual aircraft and the control algorithm is achieved by a custom C++/C software named FVMS (Flight Variables Management System), developed by Aerial Robots Team (ART), which is able to reach (read/write) a great number of flight variables from MSFS. To illustrate the effectiveness of such method, we first completely present FVMS architecture and main features. Later, the synthesis and then the application of the optimal H∞ robust control algorithm and its operation into the FVMS SiL context are explained. Regarding MAVs control evaluation, SiL simulation considerably contributes to save battery time, to ease control synthesis and prototyping and to prevent accidents during tests with the real robot. The final goal is to evaluate the stability of the Pelican platform in hovering tasks in flight simulation focusing on the efficiency of FVMS to properly run the optimal H∞ robust control algorithm. The SiL control of the MAV has proven FVMS capabilities, which may be extended to assist the design of other classes of controllers.