Flight Simulation
MAVRIK
Modular Air-Vehicle Representation with Integrated Kinetics
About MAVRIK
MAVRIK is a versatile flight simulation environment capable of modeling a wide range of air vehicles using modular geometric definitions. Vehicles are constructed from individual components composed of basic geometries, allowing MAVRIK to estimate initial aerodynamic, mass, and inertia properties from simple vehicle inputs when detailed models are not yet available. This enables rapid evaluation of flight characteristics, control laws, and configuration changes during early design and concept development.
MAVRIK is not limited to internally estimated aerodynamics. The simulation environment can accept aerodynamic models across a wide range of fidelity levels, from quick first-cut estimates and low-fidelity lifting-line methods to high-fidelity CFD, wind-tunnel data, polynomial models, aerodynamic databases, or fully custom equations. This allows the same simulation framework to support early conceptual analysis, control law development, and detailed flight-test preparation as higher-quality data becomes available.
Because MAVRIK’s modular structure extends into the simulation itself, it can support real-time morphing and configuration changes during flight. Nearly any parameter of the individual components such as position, orientation, geometry, mass, and inertia can be updated as functions of vehicle state, pilot command, or control system output. This enables the simulation of adaptive and shape-changing aircraft whose physical configuration evolves throughout the mission.
MAVRIK can model a wide variety of morphing and dynamic platforms, including:
Variable-sweep wings.
Tilt-rotor and convertible VTOL aircraft.
Vehicles with changing mass and inertia, such as solid rocket boosters.
Pop-out and telescoping wing designs.
Aerial refueling operations with evolving mass properties.
Release of external stores, payloads, pods, or armaments.
Launched effects and vertical takeoff UAVs.
MAVRIK also supports flexible initialization and launch conditions. Vehicles can begin in stationary ground configurations, airborne trim states, or project-specific launch scenarios. The transition from rest to flight can be defined to hand launches, catapult launches, drop tests, vertical takeoffs, or other custom launch profiles.
By combining modular vehicle construction, flexible aerodynamic modeling, real-time configuration changes, and user-defined launch behavior, MAVRIK provides a powerful simulation framework for exploring and validating both conventional and unconventional air-vehicle concepts.
Key Features
MAVRIK is designed to provide a powerful, flexible, and modular simulation environment for rapid concept evaluation, high-fidelity aircraft modeling, control development, and system integration. Its architecture combines automated modeling, user customization, scalable execution, and broad communication support, making it well suited for researchers, developers, and aerospace system integrators.
Modular Air-Vehicle Framework – Build aircraft from interchangeable geometric components for rapid configuration, analysis, and comparison across vehicle concepts.
Automated Mass and Aerodynamic Modeling – Estimate initial mass properties, inertia, and first-cut aerodynamic behavior from simple geometric inputs when detailed vehicle data is not yet available.
Flexible Aerodynamic Model Support – Incorporate aerodynamic models across a wide range of fidelity levels, including low-fidelity estimates, lifting-line methods, polynomial models, aerodynamic databases, CFD results, wind-tunnel data, or custom user-defined equations.
Preliminary Design Support – Evaluate flight characteristics, stability, and control laws early in the design cycle to support faster development decisions.
Highly Customizable Aircraft Modeling – Replace or refine internally estimated properties with user-provided aerodynamic data, mass distributions, inertia tensors, and vehicle-specific modeling assumptions.
Dynamic Component Properties – Enable in-flight parameter changes based on vehicle states, control inputs, or mission logic, supporting morphing, adaptive, and reconfigurable aircraft.
Fully Customizable Control Effectors – Define and test a wide range of control surfaces, propulsion-based controls, morphing effectors, or unconventional actuation strategies.
Flexible Launch and Initial Conditions – Initialize vehicles in stationary ground states, airborne trim conditions, or custom launch scenarios, including hand launch, catapult launch, drop testing, or vertical takeoff profiles.
Comprehensive Communication Capability – Interface with external systems using TCP, UDP, Serial, MAVLink, or file-based communication methods for integration with control software, visualization environments, hardware systems, telemetry streams, and third-party tools.
MAVLink Autopilot Integration – Support PX4 and ArduPilot SITL/HITL workflows through MAVLink communication, with compatibility for other MAVLink-enabled autopilots, payloads, ground stations, and onboard devices.
Headless Operation – Run simulations without a graphical interface for automated testing, batch analysis, Monte Carlo studies, multiple aircraft, or large-scale simulation campaigns.
Real-Time and Faster-Than-Real-Time Execution – Can execute in real-time or faster-than-real-time for rapid simulation workflows.
Sensor Modeling and Noise Simulation – Replicate sensor behavior, measurement noise, update rates, and more to support realistic flight software, estimation, and control-system testing.
Actuator Dynamics – Optional first-order and second-order actuator models with configurable rate and acceleration limits enable more realistic control-system simulations.
Environmental Modeling – Includes optional spherical and ellipsoidal Earth representations with latitude and longitude tracking, as well as a standard atmosphere model with adjustable pressure and temperature offsets.
Atmospheric Turbulence - simulate accurate atmospheric winds, gusts, and turbulence with various severity.
User-Friendly Input Formats – Configure vehicles, simulation parameters, control settings, and test cases using intuitive JSON and CSV files.
Automatic Unit Handling – Seamlessly convert between SI and Imperial units throughout model parameters, inputs, and outputs.
Full 6-DOF Trim Solver – Compute trimmed flight conditions for multiple maneuver types to support stability analysis, control design, and simulation initialization.
State-Space Model Generation – Export linearized system models directly from nonlinear flight dynamics for control design, stability analysis, and system identification workflows.
Inputs
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Input all necessary parameters into MAVRIK using simple, widely supported JSON and CSV file formats, making setup and configuration fast, transparent, and easily scriptable.
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MAVRIK can automatically estimate the aerodynamic and mass properties of a vehicle based on its simple geometric definition, enabling rapid setup and early-stage analysis.
For higher-fidelity applications, users can import detailed aerodynamic databases from CFD or wind tunnel testing, along with mass and inertia properties derived from CAD models, allowing seamless transition from conceptual design to advanced simulation.
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MAVRIK can be configured to receive control commands via UDP messaging, allowing seamless integration with your control software. Users can define the control update rate and specify whether the simulator should wait for incoming control data or continue running autonomously, enabling both real-time hardware-in-the-loop and open-loop simulation modes.
Outputs
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MAVRIK can generate linear state-space matrices for your vehicle about any specified flight condition, providing a solid foundation for control law design and stability analysis—helping you get a head start on control development.
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MAVRIK can be configured to record data logs to CSV files at customizable logging rates, capturing state variables, control inputs and commands, and sensor outputs for detailed analysis and post-flight evaluation.
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MAVRIK can transmit vehicle state and emulated sensor data via UDP, TCP, Serial, and MAVLink messaging, with user-defined noise levels to replicate real-world conditions. Test your control system’s robustness against scenarios such as GPS signal loss, or evaluate performance using different IMU configurations and sensor accuracies.
Default sensors include:
Gyroscope
Accelerometer
Magnetometer
Air data system (Barometer/Pitot)
GPS
MAVRIK running with the PX4 autopilot in software-in-the-loop mode flying an autonomous mission, while MAVRIK updates the UE5 graphics and PX4 updates the ground station.