Controlling drone with Matlab/simulink

Hey guys,

I’m doing my final year in aeronautical engineering

I have a project in mind(for my degree) and it involves controlling an rc with matlab/Simulink and also maybe use image processing(very basic level). The background is, this will be an individual project, I will not be working with a group and hence I have to do all the work.  So I want to keep it simple and impressive.

I’m relatively new to the world of rc aircrafts and I’ve ordered my first trainer to start flying J

Things which have been bothering me and I need help on:

*The setup*

What Rc aircraft would be ideal for the job?

Advice on the setup required would help a great deal.

How would I imbed the codes and what platform would I have to use?

For image processing, I want to implement a very basic system just to prove that an advanced version can be done.

 

*For controlling*

Using the Ardupilot line is a big advantage, but I fear that it might seem that I put in less effort since most of the functions are already programmed into it?(Is there any other way I could do this, since it is a project for my degree, I have to do some amount of work)

As I mentioned, I’m very new to this part of the woods, it would be great if you guys could point me towards the right stuff required for this feat. Your comments/advice/thoughts are welcome and appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

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Replies

  • Hi guys,

    What are the up-to-date quadrotor platforms that can be simulated on Matlab/Simulink and visualized on a real-world platforms such as Ardu Pilot or Dronecode?

    Even it will be easier if it is possible to generate the codes in Matlab for the drone?

    Any suggestions?

  • Hi guys 

    I would like to model on simulink an hexarotor. but i have some problems about the thrust factor b, drag factor d, and the rotor inertia x, y and  z. I don't know how to calculate theses variables. 

  • vectored thrust may not be of much help on a flying wing. differential drag has proven to be useful, like on the b-2.   reflexed foils are so compromised for lift, anyway, i don't know why they are so popular. 

  • http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/39037-apm2-simu...

    Check this out. May be of some help.

    Regards,

    Karan

  • There's paparazzi, which is much more difficult to learn but more advanced and customizable.  According to many, most of the original code for ardupilot came from paparazzi.

    That's not a slam on anyone, but I've heard from several people that ArduPlane started as a windows version of paparazzi backported to 8-bit processors.

    As far as what aircraft to use...  Are you serious?  I don't think you'll survive your defense if you just slap an autopilot into some ARF kit.  It's really not that hard to buy some styrofoam wings (flyingfoam.com maybe?) and carbon fiber tubes and slap them together into a plane.

    If that seems too hard to you just look at the pizza-box-flyers (PBFs).  People are literally flying square pieces of cardboard.

    Good luck!

  • Well, I'd start with the ArduPilot. If you try making your own autopilot then you'll be stuck for at least a year learning all the intricacies of it.

    If your going to try to do stuff via Simulink, you'll have to have a way of communicating between the craft and the PC. ArduPilot has a few things, but what your wanting to do requires a fair share of bandwidth. (I think your trying to do a hardware-in-the loop testing, yes?)

    Starting off, which craft do YOU want to tackle?

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