Design
Assemble your aircraft from real components. The mass, the balance and the clearances update with each change.
Engineering workbench for drones
Design, analyze, fly and validate your drone in one workbench.
xFluid is the engineering workbench for drone teams. It connects real components, performance models, flight and sensor simulation, and flight data, directly in your browser.
Private betaHosted in the EUNo installation
Example design
Survey hexacopter
- Takeoff mass
- 8.64 kg
- Hover power
- 1385 W
- Hover duration
- 23.9 min
Workflow
One model from the first part to the flight log.
All tools of xFluid use the same aircraft model. A change in the design updates the performance, the simulation and the comparison with flight data.
Analyze
Predict the power, the endurance, the range and the flight limits from models of the propulsion, the battery and the airframe.
Fly
Fly the design manually, semi-autonomously, in FPV or on autonomous missions, with simulated sensors.
Validate
Import flight logs from common autopilots such as PX4 and ArduPilot. Compare them with the model and calibrate it.
Design
Build with parts that exist.
Assemble your aircraft from a library of real motors, propellers, batteries, payloads and structures, or add your own parts. xFluid updates the mass, the balance and the clearances after each change.
- Multirotor and fixed-wing layouts that you define
- Mass, center of gravity and inertia after each change
- Clearance checks between propellers, payloads and the frame
- Designs that you can export, share and import
Performance
Know the numbers before the first flight.
Endurance, range, power and speed limits update after each change. The propulsion model shows the load on each motor and on the battery.
- The best speeds for endurance and for range
- Battery current and thrust margin at each speed
- A clear basis for each result: measured data, model or extrapolation
Flight simulation
Fly the design in realistic 3D worlds.
The flight model includes the limits of the motors, the battery and the controller. Fly manually or with assistance, fly FPV from an onboard camera, or let the aircraft fly an autonomous mission.
- Manual, semi-autonomous and autonomous flight
- Wind, gusts and battery effects in each flight
- Realistic 3D environments, directly in the browser
Hover flight in the city
Studies
Compare variants with numbers.
Change the battery, the payload, the propulsion or another input. xFluid compares the mass, the power, the endurance and the margins of each variant.
- Trade studies that show the best variants for each goal
- Uncertainty studies with percentile ranges
- The sensitivity of each result to the main inputs
Validation
Check the model against your flights.
Import flight logs from PX4 and ArduPilot. xFluid finds the steady parts of each flight and compares the measured power with the model.
- Calibration of the model with your measured data
- The calibration, applied to the design with one click
- Exports of the flight data and of the comparison
Sensors
Simulate the sensors that your aircraft carries.
Each sensor model has a mount, a rate, noise, delay and faults. Test your navigation and payload software with realistic data before the first flight.
Navigation
The sensors that tell the aircraft where it is.
- IMU: accelerometers and gyroscopes
- GNSS and RTK GNSS
- Barometer
- Magnetometer
- Airspeed sensor
- Rangefinder
- Optical flow
Perception
The sensors that see the world around the aircraft.
- RGB camera
- Thermal camera
- Multispectral camera
- Stereo and depth camera
- 3D LiDAR
- Radar
Systems and payloads
The data of the aircraft systems and of the payloads.
- Battery monitor
- ESC and motor telemetry
- Gimbal and payload state
- ADS-B receiver
The sensor library grows with each release, and some of these sensors are on the roadmap. Ask us which sensors are available today.
Use cases
One workbench for design, autonomy and safety.
Use the same aircraft model to size a design, to train autonomy and to test the failure cases before the first flight.
Reinforcement learning
Train and test control and navigation policies in a repeatable simulated world, with physics-based aircraft and sensors.
Vision-based navigation
Record camera images with exact ground truth, and develop navigation that uses the cameras only.
GNSS-denied flight
Fly with GNSS dropouts and degraded sensors, and test the estimator that keeps the aircraft on course.
Fault-tolerant design
Inject motor, sensor and battery faults, and check that the aircraft stays controllable.
Critical missions
Plan each mission with energy reserves and margins, and check them before the flight.
Design and payloads
Compare variants, and see how each payload changes the balance, the endurance and the margins.
Some of these workflows are in development. Ask us about the current status.
Platform
Your data stays private.
Private workspaces
Each team works in its own private workspace. Access is by invitation.
Hosted in the EU
The servers are in the EU, and each connection is encrypted.
Open data
Export your data in open formats, or connect your own tools through the API.
Evidence
Validated against measured data.
xFluid compares its models with published test data, so you know how far you can trust each result.
2.4% RMS
Error of the motor model against the measured hover power in NASA flight-vehicle tests.
3.4% RMS
Error of the rotor power in forward flight against NASA wind-tunnel data.
Measured data
The value comes from a test with a source, for example the bench test of a propeller.
Reference model
The value comes from a model with stated limits. xFluid tells you when a model has no calibration.
Extrapolation
The value is outside the measured range. The label warns you before you rely on it.
Access and pricing
xFluid is in private beta.
The price depends on your team and your use. Contact us at info@xfluid.ee to get a demo or access.
Contact
Tell us about your aircraft.
Tell us what you design and which decision you must make. We reply by email.
info@xfluid.ee