Model Based Design and Procedure of Flight Control System for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

Model-based design (MBD) is an efficient systematic approach for complex system design. It uses models for information transfer and interaction among the designers and engineers. With the use of MBD, communication accuracy and quality are enhanced, a large sum of iterative manual work is saved, and the system design efficiency can be improved. This paper presents practical design and procedure of flight control system for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The basic design contents and procedure of flight control system based on MBD are illustrated first. Then, the system model as well as the constitutional modules for MBD are established and presented. On the basis of the model, the flight software or the C code is generated automatically, and the system validation through X-In-the-Loop (XIL) tests is carried out. The model used in each step of XIL tests is also introduced. Finally, a test case is given as an example.