Simulate GPS IMU With Quadcopter Swarm?

I have multiple drones work in swarm formation, i made the quadcopter model and the swarm one. Until now i have the swarm moving in a formation leader-follower and track a predefined trajectory based on PID Controller. What i need help is how to add GPS, IMU sensors model to my model?

Answer 1

[Ashok]

Hi @Kal Rus,

The process of incorporating sensors depends on whether the model is developed in MATLAB or Simulink. For models in MATLAB, here are the steps to add sensors:

1. Create and initialize gpsSensor and imuSensor objects.
2. Set up an insfilterMARG filter to perform sensor fusion with GPS and IMU readings.
3. Use these sensors within the simulation loop to obtain position and orientation data from actual acceleration, angular velocity, and orientation.

A detailed example can be found here:

https://www.mathworks.com/help/releases/R2021a/fusion/ug/imu-and-gps-fusion-for-inertial-navigation.html.

For models in Simulink, the IMU and AHRS blocks can simulate the presence of an IMU sensor.

However, there is no built-in block to fuse GPS measurements with IMU measurements, as seen here:

https://www.mathworks.com/help/releases/R2021a/fusion/inertial-sensor-fusion.html.

The INS block can simulate an INS sensor, but sensor fusion will need to be designed manually. Here are the relevant documentation links for the R2021a version:

• IMU: https://www.mathworks.com/help/releases/R2021a/nav/ref/imu.html
• AHRS: https://www.mathworks.com/help/releases/R2021a/nav/ref/ahrs.html
• INS: https://www.mathworks.com/help/releases/R2021a/nav/ref/ins.html