C2Flight: A Closed-Loop Co-Simulation Framework for Early-Stage Evaluation of Heterogeneous UAV Computing Systems

Abstract:Early-stage design of heterogeneous UAV computing systems requires evaluating how algorithm, hardware, communication, and system topology affect closed-loop flight before the complete system is available. However, design choices interact through the robotic feedback loop, making task performance difficult to predict from isolated component metrics, while existing execution-driven approaches postpone system-level design feedback until the computing system is integrated. This work presents C2Flight, a closed-loop co-simulation framework that represents target systems as parameterized dataflow graphs and integrates models of hardware under design with independently accessible physical hardware through a unified node interface. Its graph runtime captures the combined effects of buffering, activation, resource sharing, communication, and local timing on closed-loop flight behavior. Validation against onboard and wireless offboard physical computing pipelines confirms its timing fidelity and closed-loop prediction accuracy. Two case studies demonstrate early-stage exploration of deployment and accelerator bit-width choices. These results show that C2Flight exposes system-level design trade-offs before full-system integration, enabling rapid early-stage design refinement.

Robotics (cs.RO)

arXiv:2610.14715 [cs.RO]

(or arXiv:2610.14715v1 [cs.RO] for this version)

https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2610.14715 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration)

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