Keywords
vertical takeoff, tailsitter, unmanned aircraft, heading estimation
Abstract
The tailsitter aircraft merges the endurance and speed of fixed-wing aircraft with the flexibility and VTOL abilities of rotorcraft. Typical control and estimation schemes make assumptions about the maximum attitude an aircraft will experience that are not valid for tailsitters. This paper discusses the limitations of a typical EKF magnetometer measurement update that uses Euler angles. It is shown how to use a second set of Euler angles to avoid gimbal lock. A method is given that bypasses the use of Euler angles altogether and directly uses the quaternion to determine heading error and update the attitude estimate. This method highlights the EKF limitations in estimating a quaternion. A multiplicative EKF is briefly explored to overcome these limitations. Hardware results on an actual tailsitter aircraft are presented.
Original Publication Citation
Beach, J., Argyle, M., McLain, T., Beard, R., and Morris, S. Tailsitter Heading Estimation Using a Magnetometer, Proceedings of the American Control Conference, pp. 91-96, June 2014, Portland, Oregon.
BYU ScholarsArchive Citation
McLain, Timothy; Beach, Jason M.; Argyle, Matthew E.; Beard, Randall W.; and Morris, Stephen, "Tailsitter Heading Estimation Using a Magnetometer" (2014). Faculty Publications. 1897.
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/facpub/1897
Document Type
Conference Paper
Publication Date
2014-6
Permanent URL
http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/3850
Publisher
IEEE
Language
English
College
Ira A. Fulton College of Engineering and Technology
Department
Mechanical Engineering
Copyright Status
© Copyright 2017 IEEE - All rights reserved. This is the author's submitted version of this article. The definitive version can be found at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/6859443/
Copyright Use Information
http://lib.byu.edu/about/copyright/