DESIGN OF A FULLY FLEGED UAV TESTBED WITH INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL PILOT Abstract - This paper presents a non linear automatic UAV simulation testbed and an autonomous control implementation with way point navigation. The UAV simulator is an integrated product that combines a vehicle operator station with a synthetic environment to support UAV research, training and operations while providing the operators (Internal Pilot) with a consistent interface. In the synthetic mission space the simulated air vehicle operates against simulated terrain, weather, and computer generated forces. External pilot also can interact into synthetic simulation testbed. The autonomous control system is based on the Aerosonde UAV and major considerations of controller performance and minimum instability within manual and autonomous switching have been evaluated with full software simulation. Major requirements for the good control system are minimum overshoot, minimum setting time without undesirable oscillation and low cross coupling between high level commands. A MATLAB simulink standard configuration environment and the Aerosim Aeronautical Simulation Block Set are utilized for simulation studies, presented through a flightgear interface and Custom GUI. Keywords – UAV, GUI, IP, EP, GCS I. INTRODUCTION Unmanned Aerial Vehicles is a rapidly growing industry in the present day due to its wide range of potential applications. The avionics systems, especially the flight management and control systems, are some of the most critical elements of any aircraft, more so for an autonomous aircraft. Testing these systems in a realistic synthetic environment is an important process. It is logical therefore, to develop a suitable simulation environment in which the avionics systems can be tested. It is desirable for this system to be easy to implement, cost effective and representative of the aircraft being simulated. The objective of this project is to develop a UAV testbed and test it up to the level of a full non-linear simulation with the help of both external pilot (EP) and internal pilot (IP) to ensure rhat the flight avionics function as expected. The most basic solution for monitoring the position and attitude of an UAV is through direct line-of-sight. A pilot that maintains direct line-of-sight with the aircraft is usually referred to as the external pilot (EP), as opposed to an internal pilot (IP) that obtains position and attitude information electronically. Maintaining visual contact with the UAV, the EP can control the aircraft using a hand-held radio-control box. Many of these control boxes are similar to those used by radio-controlled aircraft hobbyists and provide direct control of the flight surfaces of the aircraft through the use of joysticks on the box which is shown in figure1. Very little automation is involved in the use of such boxes, which control the flight surfaces of the aircraft. The stability of the control system is improved of the stability characteristic of an aircraft by using feedbacks from an aircraft’s sensors to its actuators. Controller consists of Middle level commands for external pilot and high level commands for fully autonomous waypoint navigation with the help of internal pilot. Fig. 1. Performing UAV mission with new testbed This UAV simulator is an integrated product that combines a vehicle operator station with a synthetic environment to support UAV research, training and operations. The ground control station (GCS) can be switched to control either a real air vehicle in the real mission space or a simulated air vehicle in a synthetic mission space, while providing the operators (Internal Pilot) with a consistent interface. In the synthetic mission space (Fig. 1), the simulated air vehicle operates against simulated terrain, weather, and computer generated forces (CGF). External pilot also can interact into synthetic simulation as shown in above fig. 1and below fig. 2. Fig. 2. Testbed configuration W.T.M.S Tennakoon 1 , S.R. Munasinghe 2 Department of Electronics and Telecommunication, University of Moratuwa salinda@ent.mrt.ac.lk 1 , rohan@ent.mrt.ac.lk 2