Micro air vehicle navigation system

A description of the design, operation, and test results of a Micro-Electro-Mechanical (MEMS)-based navigation system for the Micro Air Vehicle (MAV) is presented. The MAV is a small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) built by Honeywell. It is one of the first applications to use Honeywell´s new HG1930 MEMS inertial measurement unit (IMU). The raw IMU measurements are transmitted via a serial interface to a processor board where the inertial solution is blended in a Kalman filter with measurements from GPS, a barometric altimeter, and a magnetometer. The navigation is performed by Honeywell´s ECTOS lie navigation software. The modular ECTOS architecture allows easy customization for use with various IMUs and aiding sources, creating a flexible navigation solution which can be customized to the user´s requirements. The MAV has been extensively flight tested both on- and off-tether. Results are presented showing the performance of the MAV navigation system.