Enhancing Model-Free Wind Estimation for Fixed-Wing UAV

Small UAV are often not equipped to measure angle of attack and angle of sideslip, and are therefore not able to determine the local wind vector directly. Model-free wind estimators rely on comparing GPS speed and airspeed measured by a Pitot probe. We propose to enhance such estimators by including approximations of angle of attack and angle of sideslip as “pseudo-measurements”. Initial flight test results show significant improvements, with errors of the estimated wind in the order of 1 m/s.