Enhancing Model-Free Wind Estimation for Fixed-Wing UAV

Abstract

Small UAV are often not equipped to measure angle of attack and angle of sideslip, and are therefore not able to determine the local wind vector directly. Model-free wind estimators rely on comparing GPS speed and airspeed measured by a Pitot probe. We propose to enhance such estimators by including approximations of angle of attack and angle of sideslip as pseudo-measurements. Initial flight test results show significant improvements, with errors of the estimated wind in the order of 1 m/s.