Gazebo – Simulink Framework for Trajectory Tracking in a Multi-Quadcopter Environment

Abstract

Physical testing of quadcopter controllers is challenging as the quadcopters are vulnerable to damages, and the cost needed for setting up a flying arena is enormous. This work aims to establish a simulation framework that can be used to analyze and verify the performance of the control algorithms developed for quadcopters before actually deploying them in the actual quadcopters. The framework seamlessly integrates the controller models developed in MATLAB/Simulink and the physics-based Gazebo simulator through Robot Operating System. The framework is extended to simulate multiple quadrotors and to test the performance of each of their control algorithms. In this work, two independent Proportional, Integral, Derivative (PID) controllers developed in Simulink have been used to control two different Crazyflie quadcopters to make them follow the desired trajectories. The framework can be used for pedagogy and by the researchers for developing and testing the performance of control algorithms developed for any of the physics-based quadcopter models in the Gazebo simulator.