Sensor Fusion for Attitude and Bias Estimation for a VTOL UAV

In this paper, a nonlinear complementary filter is presented to estimate the attitude of a Vertical Take Off and Landing Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (VTOL UAV). The measurements are taken from a low-cost IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit) which consists of 3-axis accelerometers, 3-axis gyroscopes and 3-axis magnetometers. From the proposed estimators, the full orientation matrix R will be retrieved. The proposed observers will estimate the instantaneous quaternions as well as the gyroscope bias. This representation of orientation by the rotation matrix and quaternions allows overcoming the problem of singularities that appear in local parametrization such as Euler angles. Therefore, both estimators may be used to describe any kind of 3-D motion. Convergence of the two observers is theoretically proved and simulations are conducted taking data from a real platform in hovering flight conditions.