Autonomous landing and avoidance system virtual validation approach

The use of UAS has increased exponentially in the recent years. Precise agriculture, people search and rescue, road surveillance and control are just some of the civil applications. However, to be used with these purposes, UAS must gain regulatory approval. This paper proposes the implementation of virtual tools to reduce real testing, facilitating both the design and certification of UAS. The benefits of the approach are shown with the application to a landing and avoidance system. The project hardware is illustrated at first, including UAV hardware and software structure. Then the Optical Systems to be validated are detailed in terms of hardware and implementation approach. Finally, the tools for virtual simulation (Matlab and Gazebo) are detailed, showing the intermediate results obtained, leading to an UAS plant design. Those results are correlated with a final in flight campaign, showing the correctness of the proposed approach