A Custom Micro Air Vehicle Avionics Package for System Identification and Vehicle Control Applications

This paper presents the design of a custom avionics unit designed to enable feedback control and system identification tasks on an indoor-flight micro electric helicopter weighing approximately 250 grams. Due to the unreliability and relative inaccuracy of GPS and pressure airspeed sensors while operating in indoor environments, translational motion estimation is accomplished using a hardware optic flow sensor and a miniature sonar altimeter. Methods for estimating the required vehicle kinematic states using available sensors without a priori knowledge of the vehicle dynamics are presented. Sample flight data, including inputs and output, has been acquired by integrating the avionic system onto a miniature electric RC helicopter, and flying via open loop pilot control.