Attitude Estimation and Control of a Hovering Mini Aerial Vehicle

This paper presents the flight performance obtained by a mini fixed wing air vehicle that is equipped with an on-board embedded system running simple control and non-commercial attitude estimation algorithms that process positional data from low-cost sensors. A complementary filter based on quaternions was implemented. Data from three-axis accelerometers and rate gyros were used for attitude estimation while a range-finder sonar was used for altitude measurement. Proportional-integrator-derivative regulators were selected for attitude and altitude control. Controller tuning was achieved using a frequency domain method based on the Nichols chart. Flight testing of the control hardware and algorithms showed that body attitudes could be maintained within 3 of the desired setpoint and that the vehicle altitude could be maintained within 10cm of the desired altitude with a decoupler.