Ingenuity Flight Simulator Feature

Overview

Implement a high-fidelity flight simulator for the Mars Ingenuity helicopter, incorporating realistic collective and cyclic control, accurate aerodynamic modeling, and Mars environmental conditions.

Features

1. Realistic Helicopter Simulation

   • Implement collective pitch control for altitude adjustment
   • Implement cyclic control for pitch and roll maneuvers
   • Calculate lift and drag forces for each rotor blade individually
   • Account for blade element theory in force calculations
   • Consider Mars atmospheric conditions in aerodynamic modeling

2. Automatic Altitude Control

   • Implement PID controller for collective input based on the desired altitude input from the user

3. Mars Environmental Factors

   • Implement Martian gravity (about 3.711 m/s²)
   • Simulate thin Martian atmosphere and its effect on aerodynamics
   • Create realistic Mars environment mesh with rocks
   • Implement Mars dust storm simulation

4. Sensor Support

   • Altimeter for precise altitude measurements
   • RGB Camera for visual feedback
   • Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) for attitude and acceleration data

5. Wind Simulation

   • Implement realistic wind effects on the helicopter
   • Allow for variable wind conditions

6. Telemetry and Visualization

   • Provide real-time telemetry data (altitude, attitude, velocities)
   • Provide a gz bridge to ROS 2 for the helicopter pose topic. Convert this to TF topic in ROS 2
   • Integrate with RViz for 3D visualization of the helicopter's motion

Implementation considerations

1. Realistic Helicopter Simulation

   • Implement as a Gazebo plugin. This should be used for different helicopter configuration. For example single rotor helicopters plus a tail rotor.

2. Automatic Altitude Control

• Implement as Gazebo plugin. Subscribe to the /desired_altitude topic from user and publish to the /angle_of_attack topic for the optimal control of the helicopter altitude.
• Tune the PID parameters to reach the best tracking performance