A DSP FPGA based Hardware-in-the-Loop testing platform

Recently, there has been a need of small size UAV for vast applications in military and civilian applications as local area surveillance reconnaissance in hostile condition, damage assessment in natural disaster and remote sensing of harmful materials. UAV can finish missions without risking human life. However, applying low-cost sensors for flight control is of extreme challenge due to less accuracy nature of sensors. Therefore a Hardware-in-the-Loop(HIL) is most necessary for test and evaluation purpose to reduce the risk of flight testing. In this paper, a HIL system is built up to test the autopilot hardware performance, control parameter tuning. By combining the commercial X-Plane fly simulation software and the DSP and FPGA(Field Programmable Gate Array) based hardware interfaces, a 3D visualize HIL platform is built to improve test efficiency and reducing time and cost.