Maximum Likelihood Estimation for Identification of Aircraft Aerodynamic Derivatives

Abstract

This article investigates identification of aircraft aerodynamic derivatives. The identification is performed on the basis of the parameters stored by Flight Data Recorder. The problem is solved in time domain by Quad-M Method. Aircraft dynamics is described by a parametric model that is defined in Body-Fixed-Coordinate System. Identification of the aerodynamic derivatives is obtained by Maximum Likelihood Estimation. For finding cost function minimum, Lavenberg-Marquardt Algorithm is used. Additional effects due to process noise are included in the state-space representation. The impact of initial values on the solution is discussed. The presented method was implemented in Matlab R2009b environment.