Robotic Arm-based HILS System for Drone Controller Verification

This study presents a robotic arm-based hardware-in-the-loop (HILS) system for real-time six-degree-of-freedom (6-DOF) motion simulation of a quadcopter drone, aimed at verifying its control system, particularly the control logic. The drone is mounted on a robot arm equipped with a 6-axis force/torque sensor. Its robotic arm's motion is emulated by robot software (SW) and a controller that computes the drone's rotational and translational dynamics, while compensating for gravity. Experimental findings, including the dynamic similarity in rise time and overshoot compared with the model, demonstrate that the robotic arm simulator accurately replicates drone motion, validating its usefulness and applicability as an HILS for drones.