A hardware-in-the-loop simulation platform for distributed UAV swarms

To improve the functional verification efficiency of intelligent UAV swarm systems, this paper proposes a distributed UAV swarm hardware-in-loop (HIL) simulation platform. The proposed platform uses fine-grained 3D scenes and real aircraft aerodynamic models as inputs to simulate the control and mission decision-making process of the UAV swarm by building a swarm data interaction network. The simulation platform is equipped with real on-board electrical equipments, which can fully verify the compatibility between software and hardware in the UAV swarm system and is able to shorten the research cycle effectively. The platform supports the addition and deletion of all-digital virtual simulation nodes and can be used for large-scale swarms. The tests on individual strap-down terminal guidance and multi-aircraft coordinated search show that the platform has good simulation results for features such as data interaction, autonomous decision-making, and control of UAV swarms.