This paper deals with the systematic design and hardware co-simulation of a fuzzy gain-scheduled proportional–integral–derivative (GS-PID) controller for a quad tilt wing (QTW) type of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) based on different variants of the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm. The fuzzy PID gains scheduling problem for the stabilization of the roll, pitch and yaw dynamics of the QTW vehicle is formulated as a constrained optimization problem and solved thanks to improved PSO algorithms. PSO algorithms with variable inertia weight (PSO-In), PSO with constriction factor (PSO-Co) and PSO with possibility updating strategies (PSO-gbest) are proposed. Such variants of the PSO algorithm aim further to improve the exploration and exploitation capabilities of such a stochastic algorithm as well as its convergence fastness. The robustness of the designed PSO-based fuzzy GS-PID controllers under actuators faults is shown on the non-linear model of the QTW. All optimized fuzzy GS-PID controllers are then co-simulated within a processor-in-the-loop (PIL) framework based on an embedded NI myRIO-1900 board and a host PC. Such a proposed software (SW) and hardware (HW) computer aided design (CAD) platform is based on the Control Design and Simulation (CDSim) module of the LabVIEW environment as well as a set-up Network Streams-based data communication protocol. Demonstrative simulation results are presented, compared and discussed in order to improve the effectiveness of the proposed PSO-based fuzzy gains scheduled PID controllers for the QTW’s attitude flight stabilization.

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