PIL simulations of an FWUAV under windy conditions

Purpose: A fixed wing unmanned aerial vehicle (FWUAV) is targeted to perform processor in the loop (PIL) simulations for the flight scenarios such as straight and level, level climb, level turn, climbing turn and level steady heading sideslip under windy conditions such as steady wind (SW) and wind gust (WG) in a desired and controlled manner. Design/methodology/approach: The constrained multi-input–multi-output (MIMO) lateral and longitudinal linear models-based model predictive controllers (MPCs) which are proposed in a previous study (Ulker et al., 2017) are tested in the PIL simulations under specified windy conditions. BeagleBone Black Rev C is used as a target hardware or processor in the PIL simulations. Findings: The results of the PIL simulations show that the MPCs proposed in the previous study can achieve satisfactory performance and flying qualities for the all flight scenarios handled in this paper under windy conditions. Practical implications: The MPCs proposed in the previous study can be easily implemented in the real world to a low-cost and small-sized board like BeagleBone Black Rev C which is used in this paper. Originality/value: The proposed MPCs in the previous study which are capable of providing more flexibility in terms of tracking complex trajectories are showed to be able to be implemented to real system by means of PIL simulations under the changeable windy conditions which are difficult for performance tests.