The first flight test phase of the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center Autonomous Formation Flight project has successfully demonstrated precision autonomous station-keeping of an F/A-18 research airplane with a second F/A-18 airplane. Blended inertial navigation system (INS) and global positioning system (GPS) measurements have been communicated across an air-to-air telemetry link and used to c...

Although formal methods for developing computer systems have been available for more than a decade, few have had signi cant impact in practice. A major barrier to their use is that developers nd formal methods di cult to understand and apply. One exception is a formal method called SCR for specifying computer system requirements which, due to its easy-to-use tabular notation and demonstrated sc...

The Parrot AR drone 2 is a commercially available quad rotor with many sensors onboard, such as two cameras, accelerometers, gyrometers, barometer, and a magnetometer. Recently, a GPS-module has become available, which can be used to geo-tag images. We have adapted the particularly versatile and powerful Paparazzi open source autopilot for use with the Parrot AR drone. Hence, just by uploading ...

Field trial is very critical and high risk in autonomous UAV development life cycle. Hardware in the loop (HIL) simulation is a computer simulation that has the ability to simulate UAV flight characteristic, sensor modeling and actuator modeling while communicating in real time with the UAV autopilot hardware. HIL simulation can be used to test the UAV autopilot hardware reliability, test the c...

An autopilot is a mechanical, electrical, or hydraulic system used to guide an aerial vehicle without assistance from a human being. It also maintains the orientation of the plane by monitoring the relevant flight data from inertial measurement instruments and then using that data to cause corrective actions. In this project an attempt has been made to design, implement and develop an autopilot...

This paper presents an introduction to capturing software requirements in the PVS formal language. The object of study is a simpli ed digital autopilot that was motivated in part by the mode control panel of NASA Langley's Boeing 737 research aircraft. The paper rst presents the requirements for this autopilot in English and then steps the reader through a translation of these requirements into...

This research describes a Hardware in the Loop Simulator (HILS) that was developed to enhance the quality of attitude data received from autopilots. The described system aided in adjusting the contribution of individual IMU sensors and thereby improved the accuracy of IMU data. The HILS system outlined in this research is a gimbaled platform equipped with four stepper motors and two optical sha...

This objective of this article is to give an overview of autopilot software design for small and miniature unmanned air systems. An architecture that is typical of commercially available autopilots is described. A detailed explanation of the inner-loop control structure is described, including the lateral directional feedback loops and the longitudinal directional feedback loops. We give a brie...