Integrated simulation platform for indoor quadrotor applications

In this paper, an integrated simulation platform is developed for indoor quadrotor applications. The simulation platform mainly consists of two subsystems, the controller subsystem; the other subsystem is an indoor interactive environment. The two integrated subsystems can be highly deployed in quadrotor systems development cycle and validation of different algorithms for indoor navigation. Moreover, the simulation platform has visualization capability and tuning flexibility. These features provide the necessary ability to implement and inspect the developed algorithm in different scenario conditions before implementing them for indoor applications.

1. INTRODUCTION

Rotary wing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) have received considerable attention in the past decade [1]–[4]. Rotorcrafts are highly agile and maneuverable vehicles including indoor hovering. Recently, UAVs are widely immerging to the field of indoor applications [5]–[9]. Among these UAV, quadrotor's high maneuverability and compact size has made it the most suitable flying platform for indoor applications, yet the limited flying space and the existence of obstacles has made obstacles avoidance the biggest challenge within indoor flying environments. Quadrotors UAV should also be provided with autonomous navigation capabilities or approaches. These capabilities are important to maintain the quadrotor safe while navigation indoor dynamic environments.