A novel estimation method for weight and center-of-gravity via the aircraft trim data

Abstract

Aircraft weight and center-of-gravity are significant parameters that affect flight stability and controllability, and unreasonable CG position may cause serious flight accidents. However, there is no airborne sensor can directly measure aircraft weight and center-of-gravity. In view of this, a novel estimation method for weight and center-of-gravity via the aircraft trim data is introduced. Specifically, the trim data calculation process for the aircraft with variable center of mass is given. Then, an inverse interpolation approach based on the binary search algorithm is presented to estimate the aircraft weight and center-of-gravity, and an improved moving average filter is introduced to eliminate the adverse effect on estimation results caused by the high-frequency noise of airborne sensors. Some simulations are given to demonstrate the validity of the proposed estimation method, and it can be drawn from the result that the aircraft longitudinal CG position estimation error is within 0.05 %MAC.