On Consistent Filter Design for Angle of Attack Estimation with Airspeed Rate Measurement

This paper is concerned with the problem of estimating the angle of attack (AOA) of the aircraft. The aerodynamics model of airspeed under constant wind disturbances and the airspeed rate measurement model with the nonlinearity of quadratic form is considered. Firstly, the observability-established nonlinear system model for the AOA estimation is rigorously analyzed. Secondly, the consistent extended Kalman filter algorithm is designed to estimate the airspeed vector by introducing a compensation parameter matrix to linearization error in the measurement model. Finally, the numerical simulation based on two typical cases of aircraft maneuvers is carried out. It is shown that the proposed method can achieve the desired accuracy of the AOA estimation.