Wind speed and direction detection by means of solid-state anemometers embedded on small quadcopters

This work describes the application of a compact, MEMS-based, 2D anemometer to the estimation of a quadrotor's airspeed. Correcting for the vehicle's ground speed provided by internal GPS and inertial units allows this low cost, mobile platform to provide local wind speed estimates. A series of initial, bench-top tests were performed to characterize and calibrate the sensor, which is an improved version of a recently proposed and novel device. Additional full-scale wind tunnel experiments were performed with the sensor mounted on a fixed quadrotor to test the effect of the propellers on the sensor's performance. (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.