A Flexible Air Data Sensing System-Enabled Real-Time Assessment of Full Flight Parameters

Small drones operate in highly complex flight environments, necessitating miniaturized and low-cost flight-parameter sensing systems. Flexible air data sensing system (f-ADS) provides a new solution for the estimation of flight parameters. However, most current f-ADS systems only estimate airspeed and angle of attack (AOA), failing to achieve full flight parameter analysis, which is crucial for UAV flight. Here, we propose a low-cost f-ADS that integrates arrays of pressure, flow-velocity, and temperature sensors, aiming at the real-time decoding of full flight parameters with high precision. Using a near-sensor computing scheme, the f-ADS system achieves real-time estimation of full flight parameters, including airspeed, AOA, angle of sideslip (AOS), total air temperature (TAT), and pressure altitude (PALT) at 50 Hz. Wind-tunnel experiments showcase mean absolute errors (MAEs) of airspeed, AOA, and AOS of 0.25 m/s, 0.40°, and 0.34° within ranges of 10-30 m/s, ±16°, and ±8°, respectively. Field flight experiments demonstrate that the f-ADS responds promptly to attitude changes of the drone. The MAEs for airspeed, AOA, AOS, PALT, and TAT are 0.78 m/s, 0.54°, 0.78°, 1.57 m, and 0.15°C, respectively. These results show the potential application of f-ADS in the flight control of drones.