Hardware in-the-loop simulation for visual servoing of fixed wing UAV

An Image-based fixed wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) has autonomous flight control system which tracks targets to be pursued. This system is more prominent because it is based on visual sight around the aircraft to track the target. Targets will be identified as a feature in the image field captured by camera. By using the position of features in the image, a visual servoing algorithm is implemented to drive servo motors that control the control surfaces such as elevator, aileron, rudder, throttle, pan, and tilt angle on gimbal. Image processing module (Cubieboard2) and visual based autopilot control module (Pixhawk PX4) are used for the UAV on-board systems that become the controller test subject of the hardware in-the-loop simulation (HILS). Native C language program is used for simulating the control plants of UAV and camera attitudes. Whereas, FlightGear is used to visualize camera view and 3D model depend on the calculated UAV and camera attitudes. Then, visualized camera view is projected on screen that is subsequently captured by UAV on-board camera. The HILS results show the responses of the visual based controller to govern the simulated plants of UAV and camera pan-tilt gimbal.