Eventos Anais de eventos
COBEM 2019
25th International Congress of Mechanical Engineering
An Efficient Method for Estimating Aerodynamic Angles for Small Unmanned Aircraft
Submission Author:
Guilherme Barufaldi , SP
Co-Authors:
Guilherme Barufaldi, Marcus Victor, Luiz Carlos Góes, ROBERTO GIL ANNES DA SILVA
Presenter: Guilherme Barufaldi
doi://10.26678/ABCM.COBEM2019.COB2019-0185
Abstract
With technological advances, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) have become more popular for commercial, military and academic applications. Controlling this type of aircraft, airplanes in particular, requires real time information about the aerodynamic angles alpha and beta (angles of attack and sideslip, respectively). For small unmanned aircraft, measuring these angles is usually impracticable, since measurement vanes are heavy and cumbersome. An alternative to direct aerodynamic angle measurement is estimation. This paper presents a computationally efficient method, based on sensor data and stability and control derivatives, for estimating alpha and beta. Instead of using a Kalman filter to integrate the dynamic equations, the angles are calculated directly from the external forces - obtained from accelerometer data - by solving a linear system. This analytical solution eliminates the need for integration, filter tuning and knowledge of the initial conditions, allowing faster calculations, which is well suited for small embedded computers. An uncertainty analysis is also conducted, and expressions for the variances for the estimators are derived. In addition to the theoretical work, simulations are presented in order to provide a quantitative insight to the method. Although the method is focused on small UAVs, it can be employed for all types of airplanes.
Keywords
Aerodynamic angles, Angle of attack, estimation, Flight dynamics, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
