Wind Estimation and Airspeed Calibration Using the UAV with a Single-Antenna GNSS Receiver and Airspeed Sensor

A. Cho, J. Kim, S. Lee, C. Kee

Abstract:	In this paper, the method to estimate wind and calibrate airspeed is proposed using an aircraft with single antenna GPS receiver and airspeed sensor only. This sensor combination don’t provide true attitude of an aircraft, so the wind can’t be obtained directly from measurements. But if the aircraft maintains a bank turn, wind magnitude and direction can be estimated from the geometrical relation between wind and measurements. A period-based exponential moving average and extended Kalman filter were applied for wind estimation. An EMA method is robust under big gust, but it has long convergence time. In contrast, Kalman filtering method shows smaller convergence time not in relation to initial value. These methods can also estimate the scale factor from dynamic pressure to airspeed. This will be very useful for the operation of the small UAV because it is not easy to tune airspeed scale factor through wind tunnel test. In 2D constant wind, simulation was carried out. To test the effectiveness of proposed method, real flight test using the small UAV was accomplished. The estimation results in simulation and real flight test show that proposed method is effective.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 19th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS 2006) September 26 - 29, 2006 Fort Worth Convention Center Fort Worth, TX
Pages:	3050 - 3058
Cite this article:	Cho, A., Kim, J., Lee, S., Kee, C., "Wind Estimation and Airspeed Calibration Using the UAV with a Single-Antenna GNSS Receiver and Airspeed Sensor," Proceedings of the 19th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS 2006), Fort Worth, TX, September 2006, pp. 3050-3058.
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