A Wind Estimation Method with an Unmanned Rotorcraft for Environmental Monitoring Tasks

Wind velocity (strength and direction) is an important parameter for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-based environmental monitoring tasks. A novel wind velocity estimation method is proposed for rotorcrafts. Based on an extended state observer, this method derives the wind disturbance from rotors&...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Jia-Ying Wang, Bing Luo, Ming Zeng, Qing-Hao Meng
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2018-12-01
Series:Sensors
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/18/12/4504
Description
Summary:Wind velocity (strength and direction) is an important parameter for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-based environmental monitoring tasks. A novel wind velocity estimation method is proposed for rotorcrafts. Based on an extended state observer, this method derives the wind disturbance from rotors’ speeds and rotorcraft’s acceleration and position. Then the wind disturbance is scaled to calculate the airspeed vector, which is substituted into a wind triangle to obtain the wind velocity. Easy-to-implement methods for calculating the rotorcraft’s thrust and drag coefficient are also proposed, which are important parameters to obtain the wind drag and the airspeed, respectively. Simulations and experiments using a quadrotor in both hovering and flight conditions have validated the proposed method.
ISSN:1424-8220