Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2016

College/Unit

Statler College of Engineering and Mining Resources

Department/Program/Center

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Abstract

This article considers a novel approach to using global positioning system (GPS) signal strength readings and estimated velocity vector for estimating the attitude of a small fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). This approach has the benefit being able to estimate full position, velocity and attitude states of a UAV using only the data from a single GPS receiver and antenna. Two different approaches for utilizing GPS signal strength within measurement updates for UAV attitude in a nonlinear Kalman filter are discussed and assessed using recorded UAV flight data. Comparisons of UAV pitch and roll estimates against measurements from a high-grade mechanical gyroscope are used to show that approximately 5° error with respect to both mean and standard-deviation on both axes is achievable.

Source Citation

Gross, J., Gu, Y., & Rhudy, M. (2016). Fixed-Wing UAV Attitude Estimation Using Single Antenna GPS Signal Strength Measurements. Aerospace, 3(2), 14. https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace3020014

Comments

© 2016 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Included in

Engineering Commons

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.