Model-Based Development of Autopilot for a Gasodynamically Controlled High-Speed Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

In recent years, model-based design and automatic code generation have gained popularity in various applications. However, using this approach in some specialized safety-critical applications is still challenging because the code must fulfill rigorous requirements. In this paper, the methodology of development of the software autopilot for the guided High-Speed Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (HSUAV) is presented in detail. The platform is actuated only with 32 solid propellant lateral motors, which makes the control task challenging. MATLAB and Simulink were used to develop the detailed simulation of the vehicle, together with the control software. A Model-in-the-Loop testing was evaluated to achieve an appropriate autopilot response. Embedded Coder was applied to generate production-ready C code from the model. A custom test framework was created to accelerate the design process. The numerical equivalency of the Simulink model and C code was investigated extensively using Software-in-the-Loop and Processor-in-the-Loop simulations. A developed control algorithm was implemented on real hardware with an ARM Cortex M4 microcontroller. The integrated prototype of the control system was successfully tested in laboratory conditions by Hardware-in-the-Loop simlation. The scientific significance of this paper lies in a comprehensive description of the methodology that might be used by other researchers.