Development of a Low-Cost AOA/AOS Sensor and Data Processing System for Small-Sized UAVs

This paper introduces a low-cost, integrated angle of attack (AOA) and angle of sideslip (AOS) measurement system for small-sized UAVs. It introduces the specific implementation process of its hardware design, implementation, and data filtering fusion algorithm. The system includes a set of integrated, weather vaned AOA and AOS measurement sensors that can be quickly installed and are suitable for various small-sized UAV power layouts. A method for estimating AOA and AOS based on the Unscented Kalman Filter (UKF) algorithm and the fusion of inertial data collected by the flight controller was also implemented. The sensor proposed in this paper was mounted on a small-sized UAV for test flight verification, and the accuracy of the two proposed AOA and AOS measurement methods was compared. The flight test results show that the measured values of the wind vane sensor and the estimated values of the inertial data fusion algorithm proposed in this paper have high measurement accuracy, and the root mean square error of the two is less than 2 degrees, which reflects the observation performance of the two methods. The sensor and angle fusion estimation method proposed in this paper can serve as redundant backups for each other in the airborne application environment, significantly improving the measurement robustness and providing technical practice for the broad application of this sensor in small-sized UAVs.