Software in the loop framework for the performance assessment of a navigation and control system of an unmanned aerial vehicle

The use of autonomous vehicles is currently a growing trend, particularly in applications such as manufacturing, hazardous material handling, and surveillance [1]. A quadcopter is an emerging rotorcraft concept for an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that is equipped with four rotors, two pairs of counter-rotating, and fixedpitch blades located at the four corners of the vehicle [2]. In a quadcopter system, yaw is controlled by increasing the angular velocity of rotors that spin in the same direction to a level higher than the velocity of other rotor pairs, and pitch or roll is controlled by increasing the angular velocity of a rotor to a level greater than the velocity of a diametrically opposite rotor (Figure 1) [3].