Case Study: NASA develops and flies quadcopter GNC software in 10 weeks with MathWorks (MATLAB & Simulink)

NASA Interns Develop Guidance, Navigation, and Control Software for Quadcopter with Model-Based Design

NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) needed a realistic, economical way to give undergraduate interns hands-on experience developing guidance, navigation, and control (GNC) software for a quadcopter while protecting hardware and accommodating limited control/programming backgrounds. MathWorks’ Model-Based Design using MATLAB and Simulink—with Aerospace Blockset, Control System Toolbox, and the APM2 Simulink Blockset—was selected to provide easy-to-learn modeling, simulation, and deployment tools and a simulation environment to verify algorithms before flight.

Using MathWorks tools, interns built a 6‑DOF Simulink model, used FlightGear for simulation visualization, analyzed stability with Control System Toolbox, and deployed controllers to ArduPilot Mega hardware via Simulink’s Run on Target Hardware; recorded flight data was postprocessed in MATLAB to refine designs. MathWorks’ workflow enabled interns to develop and fly GNC algorithms in 10 weeks, streamlined hardware integration with single‑click deployment, and produced tangible outcomes—students applied the experience to design an advanced Kalman filter and received job offers—while MSFC plans to move to Pixhawk and Embedded Coder for further capability.

NASA