Development of numerical models for the simulation of fixed-wing platforms with Software-In-The-Loop

The exponential growth of the Unmanned Aerial System of the recent years uncovered new challenges in the development phase of this type of aircraft, with a major focus on flight test safety and cost reduction without compromise the results. This thesis is aimed to test the Software-In-The-Loop development approach applied with the aircraft model STRIX-DF, a flying wing UAV produced by the company AlpiAviation. During our work we started creating a digital model of the real plane using SIMNET software, complete with autonomous flight capability thanks to the implementation of the Ardupilot flight software and the Mission Planner ground control station architecture. Once completed and validated the model has been flight tested in the simulation environment provided by SIMNET application and finally we moved our attention in performing a series of tests to evaluate how the aircraft performed with different experimental updates. These tests provided us all the flight data necessary to create numerical predictions and trends on how the aircraft behaves regarding a certain variable, highlighting which are more valuable and which direction we should take to optimize the UAV for our mission. Overall, the study has highlighted the effectiveness of the Software-In-The-Loop methodology as a critical step in UAV development workflows, providing a validated, scalable, cost-effective and low-risk environment.