Airspeed measurement using ultrasonic waves for micro UAVs

This paper proposes a method of airspeed measurement using ultrasonic waves for control of micro UAVs. Measurement by pitot tube sensor generally used for aircraft control does not show high resolution and responsiveness in low speed flight. The proposed method employs the phase difference method to overcome the drawback of low resolution in the measurement. The efficiency of this method is demonstrated through flight experiments to estimate the angle of attack and the angle of side slip of a micro UAV from measured airspeed.