Design and Implementation of Hardware-In-The-Loop-Simulation for UAV Using PID Control Method

One of fixed-wing aircraft type is the fixed-wing unmanned aircraft or fixed-wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). The UAV flies without a pilot in the aircraft. All aircraft movements are controlled by an embedded computer or a remote control. The whole complex UAV control system can be decomposed into several separated sections to simplify the control design process. The three-dimensional position control was simplified to one-dimensional height control and two-dimensional navigation control. The UAV motion composed of three force components and three moment components that make up the six Degrees of Freedom (6 DoF). In the modeling process, all motions of the aircraft are considered linear and have multiple inputs and outputs (MIMO). The controller used was a PID controller which is tuned using Ziegler-Nichols method. Implementation of the Hardware-in-the-Loop-Simulation (HILS) can be done after the design of control systems for UAV is completed. The design of HILS structure was done with the help of MATLAB software. The controller that has been designed previously was implemented into the Ardupilot mega hardware. The design and implementation of PID control system with Ziegler-Nichols tuning method for the longitudinal and lateral directional dimensions, which include angular rate control, attitude control, altitude control and navigation control was able to stabilize an unstable system or to improve the system response.