Modeling and calibration of time-varying magnetometer biases in small unmanned aerial vehicles

This paper focuses on the problem of current-carrying wires found in the motor drive systems of small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV). It describes the nature of these errors and presents a systematic method for estimating them. The method can be generalized to other vehicles and methods for automating the algorithm are discussed. The benefit of calibrating these errors is demonstrated by the increased accuracy obtained on AHRS, solving Wahba's problem using mag-netometer measurements. In addition, the paper discusses practical challenges in measuring current onboard a small UAV using generic R/C components. A discussion of potential solutions that proved impractical is also presented are discussed so that other researchers can build on this work.