Configurable real-time simulation suite for coaxial rotor UAVs

This paper describes an accurate and extendable rotorcraft dynamics simulator developed to support the design and control of autonomous coaxial rotor vehicles. This simulator is capable of accurately predicting the dynamic flight response of coaxial rotor vehicles purely based on geometric, inertial and aerodynamic specifications. The simulator is fully configurable and implements the typical mechanical layouts found in model-size coaxial helicopters. The corresponding software framework as well as the underlying theory is presented in detail. System parameters for a coaxial rotor prototype have been estimated and the resulting simulation results compared with real flight-data demonstrating the capabilities of the presented simulation software.