INAV X-Plane HITL plugin

Hardware-in-the-loop plugin for X-Plane 11 & 12 for INAV Flight Controller firmware:

Hardware-in-the-loop (HITL) simulation, is a technique that is used in the development and testing of complex real-time embedded systems.

X-Plane is a flight simulation engine series developed and published by Laminar Research https://www.x-plane.com/

INAV-X-Plane-HITL is plugin for X-Plane for testing and developing INAV flight controller firmware https://github.com/iNavFlight/inav.

Motivation

I believe that good testing and debugging tools are key points to achieve software stability.

It is not Ok when people debug autopilot by running with RC Plane on the field 😃

I hope this plugin can help to improve INAV firmware.

While not been a main purpose, plugin can be used to improve pilot skils or getting familiar with INAV settings.

How it works

X-Plane https://www.x-plane.com/ is flight simulator with accurate physics simulation.

X-Plane is extendable with plugins. This plugin connects to Flight Controller through USB cable and passes gyroscope, accelerometer, barometer, magnethometer, GPS and Pitot data from X-Plane to FC. Simulated sensors data replaces readings from physical sensors.

FC sends back yaw/pitch/roll/trottle controls which are passed to X-Plane.

X-Plane 11 or X-Plane 12?

Simulation requires at least 50, or even better 100, solid FPS without freezing.

While X-Plane 12 has better visual appearance, X-Plane 11 is still recommented choice due to better performance.

Also, small aircraft physics seems to work better in X-Plane 11.

Setup and usage

See setup.md

Development

See development.md

Special thanks

Many thanks to:

• Sergii Sevriugin for initial implementation and a lot of testing
• NKDesign for NK FPV SurfWing RC plane for X-Plane
• b14ckyy for Surfwing 3D model
• Scavanger for HD OSD and SITL integration
• Bart Slinger for MacOs plugin compilation

Links

• X-Plane INAV HITL prototype has been orignally implemented by Sergii Sevriugin:

  https://github.com/sevrugin/inav/tree/master-simulator-xplane

  https://github.com/sevrugin/inav-configurator/tree/master-simulator-xplane

  

• NK_FPV Surfwing V2 | RC Plane 2.2.0

  https://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?/files/file/43974-nk_fpv-surfwing-v2-rc-plane/

• X PLANE TUTORIAL: MaxiSwift installation with X Plane v9.70 for HIL simulations

  https://github.com/jlnaudin/x-drone/wiki/X-PLANE-TUTORIAL:-MaxiSwift-installation-with-X-Plane-v9.70-for-HIL-simulations

• Quadrotor UAV simulation modelling using X-Plane simulation software

  http://www.iraj.in/journal/journal_file/journal_pdf/2-448-152361879882-85.pdf