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arXiv · 2512.06133

A Nonlinear Observer for Air-Velocity and Attitude Estimation Using Pitot and Barometric Measurements

Melone Nyoba Tchonkeu·Soulaimane Berkane·Tarek Hamel
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Abstract

This paper addresses the problem of estimating air velocity and full attitude for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in GNSS-denied environments using minimal onboard sensing-an interesting and practically relevant challenge for UAV navigation. The contribution of the paper is twofold: (i) an observability analysis establishing the conditions for uniform observability, which are useful for trajectory planning and motion control of the UAV; and (ii) the design of a nonlinear observer on SO3R3R that incorporates pitot-tube, barometric altitude, and magnetometer measurements as outputs, with IMU data used as inputs, within a unified framework. Simulation results are presented to confirm the convergence and robustness of the proposed design, including under minimally excited trajectories.

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Melone Nyoba Tchonkeu, Soulaimane Berkane, Tarek Hamel. 2025-12-05. A Nonlinear Observer for Air-Velocity and Attitude Estimation Using Pitot and Barometric Measurements. https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.06133

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