Co-Simulation of Matlab and FlightGear for Identification and Control of Aircraft

The paper outlines the development of a co-simulation solution of Matlab and FlightGear in which the communication between these programs is done via UDP without needing further toolsets. The simulation and rendering is done by FlightGear. Flight measurement signals are sent to Matlab, which in turn sends back actuator input values computed by a flight control system. First, gray-box models of the aircraft dynamics are identified for different altitudes for longitudinal and lateral dynamics so that gain-scheduled controllers can be used. The output quantities to be controlled are altitude and heading and three state-space controllers (MPC, LQR and a gain-scheduled LQR) are designed and compared by tracking two reference signals including steps and ramps. At the end the robustness of the controllers are verified by flying in turbulent weather conditions.