Hardware in the Loop Simulation for Low-altitude UAV Link in the Complex Terrain

In order to investigate the influence of complex terrain on the quality of the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) communication link and simulate it accurately, the HITL simulation platform of the UAV-ground link, which was based on EXata software and IP Network Emulation (IPNE) module, was built. In the virtual terrain scenarios, the Free-space loss model and the Irregular Terrain Model (ITM) were used to modeling and conduct the semi-physical simulation experiments, respectively. Then, a method of the HITL simulation for the wireless communication link was implemented, which achieved the real-time video stream interaction with the virtual networks. The simulation results showed the real-time changes of path loss in the complex terrain and the specific affection on the UAV-ground link communication quality from numerical and video transmission effect. The method enhanced the accuracy and rationality of the UAV-ground link simulation.