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).
Note These instructions were tested on Ubuntu 18.04
- Install the usual Development Environment on Ubuntu LTS / Debian Linux.
- Install a JSBSim release from the release page:
dpkg -i JSBSim-devel_1.1.0.dev1-<release-number>.bionic.amd64.deb
- (Optional) FlightGear may (optionally) be used for visualisation. To install FlightGear, refer to the FlightGear installation instructions).
JSBSim SITL simulation can be conveniently run through a make command as shown below:
cd /path/to/Firmware
make px4_sitl jsbsimThis 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.