digilib@itb.ac.id +62 812 2508 8800

Currently, Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) development in Indonesia has limited Hardwarein- the-loop Simulations (HILS) testing, while many research facilities in other countries have completed them. For instance, the Aviation Technology Research Center – National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) is still concentrating on software-level simulation. It is common for researchers in Indonesia to undertake flight tests without first going through the HILS testing process. The results from simulations are frequently not supported by experiments. This can be a contributing factor to the inefficiency of the UAV development process. To address this, the study proposes the implementation of HILS testing for UAV control systems as a bridge between simulation and experimental results. The HILS framework used in this research integrates hardware (PIXHAWK Cube Orange), software (MATLAB and QGroundControl), and a serial interface. The developed control system is a pitch attitude hold with a cascade control loop scheme. HILS testing revealed that the pitch response follows commands with inner loop gains KP = -0.3 and KI = -0.06, and outer loop gain KP = 3.87. The damping ratio decreased compared to software-only simulations but still met the required criteria, as did the steady-state error. These results indicate that the control system tested within the HILS framework effectively bridges between simulation and flight testing, supporting more efficient UAV development in Indonesia.