– The purpose of this paper is to design a compact, light and relatively inexpensive navigation and guidance system capable of providing the required navigation performance (RNP) in all phases of flight of small unmanned aircrafts (UA), with a special focus on precision approach and landing.

    Design/methodology/approach

    – Two multi-sensor architectures for navigation and guidance of small UA are proposed and compared in this paper. These architectures are based, respectively, on a standard extended Kalman filter (EKF) approach and a more advanced unscented Kalman filter (UKF) approach for data fusion of global navigation satellite systems (GNSS), micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS)-based inertial measurement unit (IMU) and vision-based navigation (VBN) sensors.

    Findings

    – The EKF-based VBN-IMU-GNSS-aircraft dynamics model (ADM) (VIGA) system and the UKF-based system (VIGA+) performances are compared in a small UA integration scheme (i.e. AEROSONDE UA platform) exploring a representative cross-section of this UA operational flight envelope, including high-dynamics manoeuvres and CAT-I to CAT-III precision approach tasks. The comparison shows that the position and attitude accuracy of the proposed VIGA and VIGA+ systems are compatible with the RNP specified in the various UA flight profiles, including precision approach down to CAT-II.

    Originality/value

    – The novelty aspect is the augmentation by ADM in both architectures to compensate for the MEMS-IMU sensor shortcomings in high-dynamics attitude determination tasks. Additionally, the ADM measurements are pre-filtered by an UKF with the purpose of increasing the ADM attitude solution stability time in the UKF-based system.


    Zugriff

    Zugriff prüfen

    Verfügbarkeit in meiner Bibliothek prüfen

    Bestellung bei Subito €


    Exportieren, teilen und zitieren



    Titel :

    An innovative navigation and guidance system for small unmanned aircraft using low-cost sensors


    Beteiligte:


    Erscheinungsdatum :

    2015-10-05


    Format / Umfang :

    6 pages




    Medientyp :

    Aufsatz (Zeitschrift)


    Format :

    Elektronische Ressource


    Sprache :

    Englisch





    Navigation and Guidance System Architectures for Small Unmanned Aircraft Applications

    Roberto Sabatini / Celia Bartel / Anish Kaharkar et al. | BASE | 2014

    Freier Zugriff


    Optimal Guidance of a Relay Aircraft to Extend Small Unmanned Aircraft Range

    Pachter, Meir / Hansen, John / Jacques, David et al. | SAGE Publications | 2010

    Freier Zugriff

    UNMANNED AIRCRAFT NAVIGATION SYSTEM AND METHOD

    TWINING DAVID MERRICK / WELLS JOSHUA | Europäisches Patentamt | 2018

    Freier Zugriff