Nonlinear Attitude Estimation for Small UAVs with Low Power Microprocessors

Abstract: Among algorithms used for sensor fusion for attitude estimation in unmanned aerial vehicles, the Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) is the most commonly used for estimation. In this paper, we propose a new version of H2 estimation called extended H2 estimation that can overcome the limitations of the extended Kalman Filter, specifically with respect to computational speed, memory usage, and root mean squared error. We formulate a new attitude-estimation algorithm, where the filter gain is designed offline about a nominal operating point, but the filter dynamics is implemented using the nonlinear system dynamics. We refer to this implementation of the H2 optimal estimator as the extended H2 estimator. The solution presented is tested on two cases, corresponding to slow and rapid motions, and compared against the EKF in the performance metrics mentioned above.