Journal of Aeronautical Engineering

Journal of Aeronautical Engineering

Model-Aided Inertial Navigation Applied to Wind Estimation for a Fixed Wing UAV

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Hadi Nobahari 1
Hamed Mohammadkarimi 2
Alireza Sharifi 3
1 Associate Professor Department of Aerospace Engineering Flight Mechanics sharif university of technology Tehran Iran
2 Assistant Professor Department of Aerospace Engineering Aerospace Structures - Flight Mechanics Amirkabir university of technology Tehran Iran
3 Ph.D. Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, Sharif University, Tehran, Iran
10.22034/joae.2024.355186.1121
Abstract
The flight of unmanned aerial vehicles is often associated with model uncertainties, measurement noises, and environmental disturbances such as wind gust. To mitigate these challenges, the accurate estimation of states is vital. Moreover, the wind model and its parameters should also be estimated and compensated during the flight. In this paper, a model-aided inertial navigation is implemented for this purpose. To investigate the performance of the model-aided inertial navigation, two different models including constant wind and “1-cosine” model are considered. The model-aided inertial navigation integrates the output from a dynamics model of unmanned aerial vehicle in the navigation system to simultaneously estimate the model of wind as well as the current states. The results show that the model-aided inertial navigation provides good performance and the wind model is properly estimated. Moreover, small estimation errors, obtained from the simulations, prove the good performance of this approach in estimation of states and wind model.

Highlights

[1] Van den Kroonenberg, A., Martin, T., Buschmann, M., Bange, J., and Vörsmann, P., “Measuring the wind vector using the autonomous mini aerial vehicle M2AV” Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology,25(11), 1969-1982, 2008

[2] Langelaan, J. W., Alley, N., and Neidhoefer, J., “Wind field estimation for small unmanned aerial vehicles” Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics, 34(4), 1016-1030, 2011.

[3] Ahmed, F., Mohanta, J. C., Keshari, A., & Yadav, P. S. (2022). Recent Advances in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles: A Review. Arabian Journal for Science and Engineering, 47(7), 7963-7984.

[4] Bronz, Murat, et al. "Simultaneous Wind Field Measurements with Doppler Lidar, Quadrotor and Fixed-Wing UAV." AIAA SCITECH 2023 Forum. 2023.

[5] Wormley, S. J., “GPS Errors and Estimating Your Receiver's Accuracy” Retrieved October, 24, 2006.

[6]  Robinson, R. A., Butterfield, D., Curtis, D., and Thompson, T., “Problems with Pitots issues with flow measurement in stacks” Internation Environmental Technology (IET), 2004.

[7] Cho, A., Kim, J., Lee, S., and Kee, C., “Wind estimation and airspeed calibration using a UAV with a single-antenna GPS receiver and pitot tube” IEEE transactions on aerospace and electronic systems, 47(1), 109-117, 2011.

[8] Simma, Magdalena, Håvard Mjøen, and Tobias Boström. "Measuring wind speed using the internal stabilization system of a quadrotor drone." Drones 4, no. 2 (2020): 23.

[9]  Zachariah, D., and Jansson, M., “Self-motion and wind velocity estimation for small-scale UAVs”, In Robotics and Automation (ICRA), IEEE International Conference on, pp. 1166-1171, 2011, May.

[10]  Johansen, T. A., Cristofaro, A., Sørensen, K., Hansen, J. M., and Fossen, T. I., “On estimation of wind velocity, angle-of-attack and sideslip angle of small uavs using standard sensors”, In Unmanned Aircraft Systems (ICUAS), IEEE International Conference on, pp. 510-519, 2015.

[11] Etele, J., “Overview of wind gust modelling with application to autonomous low-level UAV control” Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department, Carelton University, Ottawa, Canada, 2006.

[12]  Aeronautics, N., & Torrance, C. A., “On-board wind speed estimation for uavs”, 2011.

[13] Simon, Nathaniel, et al. "FlowDrone: wind estimation and gust rejection on UAVs using fast-response hot-wire flow sensors." arXiv preprint arXiv:2210.05857 (2022).

[14] Zipfel, Peter H. Modeling and simulation of aerospace vehicle dynamics. Amer Inst of Aeronautics &, 2007.

[15] R. Vepa, “Flight Dynamics, Simulation, and Control: For Rigid and Flexible Aircraft,“ CRC Press, August 2014.

[16] U.S. Military Specification MIL-F-8785C, 5 November 1980.

[17] Hoblit, Frederic M., “Gust loads on aircraft: concepts and applications“, Aiaa, 1988.

[18] R. Vepa, “Flight Dynamics, Simulation, and Control: For Rigid and Flexible Aircraft,“ CRC Press, August 2014.

[19] Rogers, Robert M. Applied mathematics in integrated navigation systems. Vol. 1. Aiaa, 2003.

Keywords
Unmanned Aerial Vehicle
Wind Models
Wind Estimation
State Estimation
Model-Aided Inertial Navigation

Subjects

[1] Van den Kroonenberg, A., Martin, T., Buschmann, M., Bange, J., and Vörsmann, P., “Measuring the wind vector using the autonomous mini aerial vehicle M2AV” Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology,25(11), 1969-1982, 2008
[2] Langelaan, J. W., Alley, N., and Neidhoefer, J., “Wind field estimation for small unmanned aerial vehicles” Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics, 34(4), 1016-1030, 2011.
[3] Ahmed, F., Mohanta, J. C., Keshari, A., & Yadav, P. S. (2022). Recent Advances in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles: A Review. Arabian Journal for Science and Engineering, 47(7), 7963-7984.
[4] Bronz, Murat, et al. "Simultaneous Wind Field Measurements with Doppler Lidar, Quadrotor and Fixed-Wing UAV." AIAA SCITECH 2023 Forum. 2023.
[5] Wormley, S. J., “GPS Errors and Estimating Your Receiver's Accuracy” Retrieved October, 24, 2006.
[6]  Robinson, R. A., Butterfield, D., Curtis, D., and Thompson, T., “Problems with Pitots issues with flow measurement in stacks” Internation Environmental Technology (IET), 2004.
[7] Cho, A., Kim, J., Lee, S., and Kee, C., “Wind estimation and airspeed calibration using a UAV with a single-antenna GPS receiver and pitot tube” IEEE transactions on aerospace and electronic systems, 47(1), 109-117, 2011.
[8] Simma, Magdalena, Håvard Mjøen, and Tobias Boström. "Measuring wind speed using the internal stabilization system of a quadrotor drone." Drones 4, no. 2 (2020): 23.
[9]  Zachariah, D., and Jansson, M., “Self-motion and wind velocity estimation for small-scale UAVs”, In Robotics and Automation (ICRA), IEEE International Conference on, pp. 1166-1171, 2011, May.
[10]  Johansen, T. A., Cristofaro, A., Sørensen, K., Hansen, J. M., and Fossen, T. I., “On estimation of wind velocity, angle-of-attack and sideslip angle of small uavs using standard sensors”, In Unmanned Aircraft Systems (ICUAS), IEEE International Conference on, pp. 510-519, 2015.
[11] Etele, J., “Overview of wind gust modelling with application to autonomous low-level UAV control” Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department, Carelton University, Ottawa, Canada, 2006.
[12]  Aeronautics, N., & Torrance, C. A., “On-board wind speed estimation for uavs”, 2011.
[13] Simon, Nathaniel, et al. "FlowDrone: wind estimation and gust rejection on UAVs using fast-response hot-wire flow sensors." arXiv preprint arXiv:2210.05857 (2022).
[14] Zipfel, Peter H. Modeling and simulation of aerospace vehicle dynamics. Amer Inst of Aeronautics &, 2007.
[15] R. Vepa, “Flight Dynamics, Simulation, and Control: For Rigid and Flexible Aircraft,“ CRC Press, August 2014.
[16] U.S. Military Specification MIL-F-8785C, 5 November 1980.
[17] Hoblit, Frederic M., “Gust loads on aircraft: concepts and applications“, Aiaa, 1988.
[18] R. Vepa, “Flight Dynamics, Simulation, and Control: For Rigid and Flexible Aircraft,“ CRC Press, August 2014.
[19] Rogers, Robert M. Applied mathematics in integrated navigation systems. Vol. 1. Aiaa, 2003.
Journal of Aeronautical Engineering
Volume 26, Issue 1
August 2024
Pages 17-26

  • Receive Date 08 August 2022
  • Revise Date 18 February 2023
  • Accept Date 14 May 2024