Development and validation of the multicopter modelling code: a physics-based tool for multicopter analysis

Abstract

Purpose This study aims to present details of the development and validation of the multicopter modelling code (MMC), a tool for the analysis of small-scale multicopters based on flight physics. Design/methodology/approach The development effort involved the study of aircraft dynamics and translating the equations of motion into MATLAB code. The authors also developed several auxiliary functions, so that the tool could trim the aircraft about a steady state, linearize the dynamic equations to produce a model that could be used for control systems design and carry out flight simulation. Findings MMC proved to be of good accuracy, producing results similar to those of other software such as AcuSolve, Overflow and the Rensselaer Multicopter Analysis Code (RMAC), which served as the motivation for this study. Originality/value The tool presented here provides an alternative to the aforementioned software, which are not freely available, programmed in MATLAB, a language well known to engineers and scientists.