MEMS sensor suites for Micro Air Vehicle (MAV) autopilot

Applications of Micro Electro Mechanical System (MEMS) sensors in Micro Air vehicle (MAV) for navigation have shown tremendous advantages over other traditional sensors. Design and Development of such MEMS sensor suite for MAV applications is more economical, safe and care free. The applications of MEMS sensors for different applications like attitude, altitude, heading and many other flight parameters as required for MAV flight navigation and control. Microelectronics technology is expanding leaps and bounds with affordable solutions particularly in the telecommunication market. MEMS sensors are quite affordable in terms of weight, volume and cost are being used in MAV applications. Typical MAV autopilot will consists of an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU), programmable controller, required interfaces and a nonvolatile memory apart from power management system. This paper presents the research activity taken up at CSIR-NAL, Bangalore, India in design and development of indigenous micro MEMS based integrated sensor suite for its application in MAV. This paper addresses the issues like selection of suitable sensor, performance issues, integration, flight testing and validation of the sensors with flight as well as standard calibrators. Paper also addresses the limited lab tests, ground tests and flight tests with brief results.