Estimation of UAV Position with Use of Smoothing Algorithms

What is it about?

The paper presents methods of on-line and off-line estimation of UAV position on the basis of measurements from its integrated navigation system. The navigation system installed on board UAV contains an INS and a GNSS receiver. The UAV position, as well as velocity and orientation are estimated with the use of smoothing algorithms. For off-line estimation, a fixed-interval smoothing algorithm has been applied. On-line estimation has been realized with the use of a fixed-lag smoothing algorithm. The paper includes chosen results of simulations demonstrating improvements of accuracy of UAV position estimation with the use of smoothing algorithms in comparison to the use of a Kalman filter.

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Why is it important?

Use of smoothing algorithms significantly improves accuracy of estimation of position, velocity and attitude of a vehicle in comparison to standard methods of filtration. The smoothing methods can be used in many off-line and on-line estimation problems instead of traditionally applied Kalman filters.