Using a quadrotor as wind sensor: time-varying parameter estimation algorithms

The objective of this paper is to develop an algorithm for the estimation of time-varying wind parameters by taking into account a detailed quadrotor model. The design objectives include the time convergence optimisation, robustness to measurement noises, and a guaranteed convergence of the estimates to the true values under mild applicability conditions. It is supposed that the estimation algorithm can use inertial measurement unit (IMU) (accelerometers, gyroscopes) sensors augmented with an earth reference tracking system and rotor rotational velocity sensors. To this end, three time-varying parameter estimation algorithms are introduced, compared and finally merged to estimate the varying wind velocity in onboard quadrotor systems. Final numerical experiments, using a nonlinear quadrotor simulator, are used to validate the proposed approaches.