Reduced observer design for aircraft linear velocity estimation

In this paper we propose a reduced observer design for the estimation of the linear velocity of an aircraft based on the measurements of the Euler angles and angular velocity as well as the position of the latter subjected to measurement errors and noise. The observer is designed based on a high gain approach using an output injection, which enables to reduce the order of the observer to six equations rather than a full order observer of order 12. A simulation study is carried out using an aerodynamic model for a British aircraft Jetstream-3102 to show the performance of the observer as well as its robustness with respect to measurement errors and noise.