Moving Horizon Estimation of Air Data Parameters for UAVs

Abstract

Local wind velocities, angle of attack and lift coefficients of a fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) are estimated by fusing kinematic, aerodynamic and stochastic wind models with data from an inertial measurement unit, a global navigation satellite system receiver and a pitot-static tube in a Moving Horizon Estimator. Experimental validation with two different UAVs and two sensor sets of different quality, show promising results for both wind velocity and angle of attack estimation.