A Virtual Quadrotor Simulation Platform for Control Education

This paper presents a web-based quadrotor simulation platform to facilitate automatic control education. The platform employs a client-server architecture. The server is developed using Python to implement numerical simulations, while the client leverages JavaScript libraries to achieve 3D visualization and an interactive user interface. Several built-in control modes based on PID controller are designed in this platform. Moreover, a programming interface is also provided to implement user-defined control algorithms. A key feature of this platform is that the controllers can be adjusted in real-time. The platform can be used to teach and practice automatic control theories such as model linearization, PID controller design, inner-outer loop control strategy, and LQR method. Through virtual control practice using the platform, students can understand automatic control theories better and improve their problem-solving capability.