JSBSim Simulation

JSBSim 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

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:::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:

   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). :::

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

   roslaunch jsbsim_bridge px4_jsbsim_bridge.launch

Further Information

• px4-jsbsim-bridge readme