Multi-UAV Simulator Utilizing X-Plane

This paper describes the development of a simulator for multiple Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) utilizing the commercially available simulator X-Plane and Matlab. Coordinated control of unmanned systems is currently being researched for a wide range of applications, including search and rescue, convoy protection, and building clearing to name a few. Although coordination and control of Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs) has been a heavily researched area, the extension towards controlling multiple UAVs has seen minimal attention. This lack of development is due to numerous issues including the difficulty in realistically modeling and simulating multiple UAVs. This work attempts to overcome these limitations by creating an environment that can simultaneously simulate multiple air vehicles as well as provide state data and control input for the individual vehicles using a heavily developed and commercially available flight simulator (X-Plane). This framework will allow researchers to study multi-UAV control algorithms using realistic unmanned and manned aircraft models in real-world modeled environments. Validation of the system's ability is shown through the demonstration of formation control algorithms implemented on four UAV helicopters with formation and navigation controllers built in Matlab/Simulink.