UAV dynamics model parameters estimation techniques: A comparison study

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) dynamics modeling and parameter estimation has recently occupied great interest due to their vast use in military, civilian, industrial and agricultural applications. Accurate Online UAV parameter estimation is essential for robust autonomous control design. This study presents two different online UAV parameter estimation methods; the smooth variable structure filter (SVSF) method and the recursive least squares (RLS) method. This work presents the application of the SVSF method; including chattering signal´s information which previously was applied to linear models, over a nonlinear dynamics model. Moreover, the work presents a simulation study to assess the performance of the methods in terms of accuracy and speed of convergence when applied to estimate the parameters of a general Quadrotor dynamics model. The better method might be considered for deployment in an experimental UAV parameter estimation project under run by the authors.