Wind velocity estimation for multirotors based on disturbance observers

Abstract

This paper presents a new solution for estimating wind velocity using multirotors. During the flight, an aircraft faces aerodynamic forces as a consequence of the difference between the aircraft’s velocity — often a well-measured factor — and the wind velocity. These aerodynamic forces act as external disturbances that affect the aircraft structure, and our strategy aims to provide a practical method for calculating wind velocity from its effects on the multirotor dynamics. We use an exponentially stable disturbance observer to estimate the external aerodynamic forces and employ an inversion filter to infer the wind velocity from the observed disturbances. We also present a method for identifying multirotor aerodynamic parameters via least squares. Furthermore, the proposed approach has been tested and validated in the Gazebo simulation environment through a custom plugin that includes aerodynamics drag forces to the multirotor dynamics.