Realistic Wireless Communications UAV Simulator

Unmanned aerial vehicles are envisioned as an integral component of future wireless systems. Despite the widespread interest in UAV communications research, UAV experimental evaluation is restricted by existing laws and regulations. These restrictions along with the overheads of deploying UAVs  make simulations the method of choice of many researchers.  However, many of the existing UAV simulators tend to use oversimplified channel models and most of them ignore UAV dynamics. These limitations drive the need for a UAV simulator, which performs accurate channel modeling along with realistic UAV dynamics and visual rendering. In this study our objectives are

1) Develop a wireless communications UAV simulation using; (1) Wireless Insite ray tracing software for realistic channel modeling, (2) Microsoft Airsim for photorealistic UAV simulations accounting for UAV dynamics. This simulator, once ready, is to be made publicly available for the wireless research community.

2) Develop sample applications using this UAV simulator, which include verifying existing UAV trajectory optimization algorithms, and data driven UAV communications and control.

Staff