Development and Validation of on-board systems control laws

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe the tool and procedure developed in order to design the control laws of several UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) sub-systems. The authors designed and developed the logics governing: landing gear, nose wheel steering, wheel braking, and fuel system. Design/methodology/approach – This procedure is based on a general purpose, object-oriented, simulation tool. The development method used is based on three-steps. The main structure of the control laws is defined through flow charts; then the logics are ported to ANSI-C programming language; finally the code is implemented inside the status model. The status model is a Matlab-Simulink model, which uses an embedded Matlab-function to model the FCC (Flight Control Computer). The core block is linked with the components, but cannot access their internal model. Interfaces between FCCs and system components in the model reflect real system ones. Findings – The user verifies systems' reactions in real time, through the status model. Using block-oriented approach, development of the control laws and integration of several systems is faster. Practical implications – The tool aims to test and validate the control laws dynamically, helping specialists to find out odd logics or undesired responses, during the pre-design. Originality/value – The development team can test and verify the control laws in various failure scenarios. This tool allows more reliable and effective logics to be produced, which can be directly used on the system.