A sensor-to-sensor model-based change detection approach for quadcopters

Abstract

This paper addresses the problem of change detection for a quadcopter in the presence of wind disturbances. Different aspects of the quadcopter dynamics and various flight conditions have been investigated. First, the wind is modeled using the Dryden wind model as a sum of a low-frequent and a turbulent part. Since the closed-loop control can compensate for system changes and disturbances and the effect of the wind disturbance is significant, the residuals obtained from a standard simulation model can be misleading. Instead, a sensor-to-sensor submodel of the quadcopter is selected to detect a change in the payload using the Instrumental Variables (IV) cost function. It is shown that the mass variation can be detected using the IV cost function in different flight scenarios.