Development of a Rotary Wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Simulation Model

This report details the work undertaken during a DSTO Summer Vacation Scholarship Program on the development of a flight simulation system for the Raptor 90 UAV platform. Simulink was used to execute the core simulation update loop, with externally linked modules providing functionality for joystick input, flight dynamics, and 3D visualisation. A flight model for the Raptor was developed in FLIGHTLAB, and flown in the simulation system under pilot control and autonomous control. The Raptor model was shown to be capable of flying autonomously through a range of manoeuvres, via the use of an autopilot code module written in MATLAB. Additionally, a MATLAB interface for an inertial motion unit was developed to aid in future autopilot research.