4.1 How to Use This Chapter

The unified modeling framework for unmanned vehicle systems divides the overall system into two parts: the airframe system and the control system. Sensor data and control signals are exchanged between these two parts. The airframe system is subdivided into four subsystems:

• Airframe subsystem: Includes internal modules such as fuselage, operating environment, and force/moment calculations. It provides a comprehensive description of the movement, energy consumption, and failure characteristics of the airframe in its environment.
• Actuator subsystem: Handles the interaction between the vehicle and its external environment. It receives control signals from the control system and generates forces and moments to drive the airframe.
• Sensor subsystem: Primarily describes all electronic hardware models other than the control software, including sensor data characteristics, communication protocols, and connection interfaces.
• 3D environment subsystem: Describes the visual environment of unmanned flight in 3D (including terrain, obstacles, roads, etc.) and provides visual data simulation for the autonomous control system.

Within this modeling framework, the airframe system requires high-precision modeling and must be implemented in the real-time simulation computer, ultimately connected with the control system's software or hardware to form a SIL or HIL simulation closed loop.

The modeling framework can be rapidly implemented in graphical modeling and simulation tools such as Simulink. After the complete simulation model is built, automatic code generation can produce simulation software for different real-time simulation environments. Various vehicle types can be quickly expanded by replacing specific subsystem modules. The figure shows an example of a multirotor simulation model built in Simulink, containing basic motion simulation and fault injection functions, capable of realistically simulating the motion dynamics of various multirotors.

Additionally, the RflySim Toolchain provides Simulink unmanned dynamics modeling templates supporting multiple rotor configurations, facilitating model development and expansion. Standard input/output interfaces enable building unmanned models of any configuration in Simulink, with support for automatic code generation to import models into the HIL simulator as DLL files. The propulsion system component database covers over 2,000 commercially available products, allowing users to select motors, propellers, and other components to assemble different multirotor configurations (tri-, quad-, hex-, octocopters) and estimate performance metrics (hover time, maximum thrust, etc.) and model parameters (mass, moment of inertia, propeller thrust coefficient, etc.) for dynamics simulation.

Chapter Introduction Document

The introduction document for this chapter is located at: 🔗[Installation Directory]\RflySimAPIs\4.RflySimModel\Intro.pdf🔗

API Reference

The development API reference for this chapter is located at: 🔗[Installation Directory]\RflySimAPIs\4.RflySimModel\API.pdf🔗

PPT Courseware

The PPT courseware for this chapter is located at: 🔗[Installation Directory]\RflySimAPIs\4.RflySimModel\PPT.pdf🔗

All Example Files

For all examples in this chapter, see the Readme documentation located at: 🔗[Installation Directory]\RflySimAPIs\4.RflySimModel\Readme.pdf🔗