A Multicopter Design Software Tool for Automated Generation of Simulation and Visualization Models

Abstract

Multicoptor unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are popular robotics platforms in various research and applications fields. Research in robotics, control, estimation and computer vision relies heavily on open-source software and hardware to build custom UAV. This is motivated by lower cost of material and rapid development desire. The presented tool automates the task of obtaining realistic models for simulation and visualization of multicoptors using state-of-the-art Computer Aided Design engineering tools (CAD). Users interact with the software through a desktop application that offers interface to CAD tools, hardware database and simulation files generation. Custom models can be generated for three popular multirotor simulators. Modeling parameters accuracy has been validated using data of IRIS+ quadcopter model.