The controlling and modelling of quadrotors and simulating it on simulink ?

Hi ,

I am in my Final year in mechatronics Engineering .These days I am working on my graduation project which is doing some studies on controlling / modelling / simulation for Quad rotors. I just need to know the following points:

1) I thought to use Matlab and Simulink for my project but I am totally a begineer to use the software , so I want to know first if the matlab/ Simulink is a good software to use for such project or is it complicated ?

2) If I have the quad rotor itself , can I connect it by anymeans with the matlab or simulink to take real live data ?

3) Is there like any tutorials for simulink ?

http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/9398-quadrotor-pid-simulation

Regards,

Zack

Answer 1

[Fangjun Jiang]

MATLAB/Simulink is the De facto software tool for control design. It's very easy to use and straightforward for control design engineer.

If you want to control your physical rotor, you'll need some data acquisition board to connect to the rotor. MATLAB/Simulink can not really do real-time control. You will need to have a real-time system for that.

If you already have MATLAB/Simulink installed, type demo in Command Window and then browse through. There are plenty of examples for Simulink.

[Zack [e-mail]]

mmm I see ... ok one more question if you don't mind . I knew lately that I can simulate a 3D on Simulink and use something called Vitual reality environment as well... Can you describe this part in detailes.

also if possible I want to know how do people do the 3D on simulink or do they draw their desigh using a 3D CAD design for example like solidworks and then import the file on simulink ?

Is solidworks compatible wih Simulink to import CAD file from to Simulink?

Many thanks to you ...

[Fangjun Jiang]

Simulink has "Simulink 3D Animation" Toolbox. http://www.mathworks.com/products/3d-animation/. I have no knowledge on Solidworks. You can check the link to see if its compatible or have interface for it.

[Jason Ross]

Check into the SimMechanics product. There is some translation capability with SolidWorks.