Full-Envelope Stitched Simulation Model of a Quadcopter Using STITCH

Abstract

Accurate real-time simulation models of small-scale multi-rotor vehicles are desirable for full-mission simulation and flight control evaluations within hardware-in-the-loop simulation. This paper presents the development and verification of a continuous, full-envelope stitched simulation model of a quadcopter using flight-identified models of the 3D Robotics IRIS+ and the newly-developed model stitching simulation software STITCH. Two flight-identified point models (one at hover and one at forward flight), plus some additional trim data, are shown herein to adequately and accurately capture the bare-airframe dynamics of the IRIS+ over its nominal flight envelope. The stitched simulation model is verified in the frequency domain for multiple airspeeds. Additionally, the off-nominal mass-, CG-, and inertia-extrapolation capabilities of STITCH are investigated and the results are verified against flight data for a heavy loading configuration. The overall findings are considered to provide flight-test guidance for the development of stitched simulation models of small-scale multi-rotor vehicles.