We've been quietly beavering away at hardware-in-the-loop simulations for our Vulture 2 spaceplane, and Pixhawk wrangler Linus Penzlien has finally got the aircraft to land itself at a virtual Spaceport America.
The HIL work involves ArduPilot controlling an X-Plane model created by Billy Bargagliotti. The APM deploys some custom mission parameters by Andrew Tridgell, plus a smidge of autotune.
For your viewing pleasure, see this short video, grabbed by Linus during a recent simulation.
There are details of the HIL work here, and full coverage of the Low Orbit Helium Assisted Navigator (LOHAN) mission right here.
Comments
The latter. They work fine for the purposes of HIL.
what's going on with the canards? they seem tremendously deflected in flight. Was that a design choice or just xplane not reflecting reality?