Micro air vehicle navigation system

A description of the design, operation, and test results of a Micro-Electro-Mechanical (MEMS)-based navigation system for the Micro Air Vehicle (MAV) is presented. The MAV is a small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) built by Honeywell. It is one of the first applications to use Honeywell's new HG1930 MEMS inertial measurement unit (IMU). The raw IMU measurements are transmitted via a serial interface to a processor board where the inertial solution is blended in a Kalman filter with measurements from GPS, a barometric altimeter, and a magnetometer. The navigation is performed by Honeywell's ECTOS lie navigation software. The modular ECTOS architecture allows easy customization for use with various IMUs and aiding sources, creating a flexible navigation solution which can be customized to the user's requirements. The MAV has been extensively flight tested both on- and off-tether. Results are presented showing the performance of the MAV navigation system.