Experimental Approach for Evaluating an UAV COTS-Based Embedded Sensors System

摘要

Fixed-wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are a class of UAVs which present many advantages notably long range of action. However, design of this kind of UAVs requires heavy logistics like outdoor tests, runways and experimented pilots. These constraints impact the development of embedded systems for fixed-wing UAVs. The purpose of this paper is to present an experimental approach for evaluating an embedded sensors system of a micro-fixed-wing UAV. Our idea is to test the sensors system using a vehicle that emulate the behavior of this UAV but without the constraints imposed by flight experimentations. Looking for the best emulation vehicle, first a theoretical and then an experimental study is conducted on a mobile robot and a bicycle models. We also show that, contrary to trend in literature, a mobile robot is not the optimal choice to emulate a fixed-wing UAV.