JSBSim Simulation

JSBSim (opens new window) is a open source flight simulator ("flight dynamics model (FDM)") that runs on Microsoft Windows, Apple Macintosh, Linux, IRIX, Cygwin (Unix on Windows), etc. Its features include: fully configurable aerodynamics and a propulsion system that can model complex flight dynamics of an aircraft. Rotational earth effects are also modeled into the dynamics.

Supported Vehicles: Plane, Quadrotor, Hexarotor

Note

See Simulation for general information about simulators, the simulation environment, and simulation configuration (e.g. supported vehicles).

Installation (Ubuntu Linux)

Note

These instructions were tested on Ubuntu 18.04

1. Install the usual Development Environment on Ubuntu LTS / Debian Linux.
2. Install a JSBSim release from the release page (opens new window):

   dpkg -i JSBSim-devel_1.1.0.dev1-<release-number>.bionic.amd64.deb
   

3. (Optional) FlightGear may (optionally) be used for visualisation. To install FlightGear, refer to the FlightGear installation instructions).

Running the Simulation

JSBSim SITL simulation can be conveniently run through a make command as shown below:

cd /path/to/PX4-Autopilot
make px4_sitl jsbsim

This will run both the PX4 SITL instance and the FlightGear UI (for visualization). If you want to run without the FlightGear UI, you can add HEADLESS=1 to the front of the make command.

The supported vehicles and make commands are listed below (click on the links to see the vehicle images).

Vehicle	Command
Standard Plane	make px4_sitl jsbsim_rascal
Quadrotor	make px4_sitl jsbsim_quadrotor_x
Hexarotor	make px4_sitl jsbsim_hexarotor_x

The commands above launch a single vehicle with the full UI. QGroundControl should be able to automatically connect to the simulated vehicle.

Running JSBSim with ROS

To run JSBSim with ROS:

1. Clone the px4-jsbsim-bridge package into your catkin workspace:

   cd <path_to_catkin_ws>/src
   git clone https://github.com/Auterion/px4-jsbsim-bridge.git
   

2. Build the jsbsim_bridge catkin package:

   catkin build jsbsim_bridge
   

Note

You must have already set MAVROS in your workspace (if not, follow the instructions in the MAVROS installation guide).

1. So start JSBSim through ROS using the launch file as shown:

   roslaunch jsbsim_bridge px4_jsbsim_bridge.launch
   

Further Information

• px4-jsbsim-bridge readme (opens new window)