Moving Horizon Estimation of Air Data Parameters for UAVs

Local wind velocities, angle of attack, and lift coefficients of a fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) are estimated by fusing kinematic, aerodynamic, and stochastic wind models with data from an inertial measurement unit, a global navigation satellite system receiver, and a pitot-static tube in a moving horizon estimator. Experimental validation with two different UAVs and two sensor sets of different quality shows promising results for both wind velocity and angle of attack estimation.