Fluid flow estimation and navigation

A computer program product comprising computer readable executable code for implementing a method configure to:

• receive one or more sensor measurements from one or more inertial sensors, wherein the sensor measurements are indicative of at least one acceleration of a vehicle;
• determine a 3-dimensional force on the vehicle based on the received sensor measurements indicative of at least one acceleration;
• determine a force delta, wherein the force delta is a difference between a 3-dimensional force with a change in a control surface state and a 3-dimensional force without the change in the control surface state, wherein determining the force delta comprises:
• identifying an initial 3-dimensional fluid flow estimate vector;
• receiving data relating to a current control surface state;
• and
• referencing a Force Delta look-up table based on the initial 3-dimensional fluid flow estimate vector and the data relating to the current control surface state;
• add the force delta to the determined 3-dimensional force;
• and
• determine a 3-dimensional fluid flow estimate vector corresponding to the determined 3-dimensional force based on an inverted Fluid Flow to Force mapping function, wherein the mapping function is trained based on one or more training datasets and the 3-dimensional fluid flow estimate vector is indicative of a fluid flow affecting at least the lift and drag forces acting on the vehicle.

A system comprising:

• a computing device;
• and
• a vehicle;
• wherein the system is configured to implement a method comprising:
• receiving one or more sensor measurements from one or more inertial sensors, wherein the sensor measurements are indicative of at least one acceleration of a vehicle;
• determining a 3-dimensional force on the vehicle based on the received sensor measurements indicative of at least one acceleration;
• determining a force delta, wherein the force delta is a difference between a 3-dimensional force with a change in a control surface state and a 3-dimensional force without the change in the control surface state, wherein determining the force delta comprises:
• identifying an initial 3-dimensional fluid flow estimate vector;
• receiving data relating to a current control surface state;
• and
• referencing a Force Delta look-up table based on the initial 3-dimensional fluid flow estimate vector and the data relating to the current control surface state;
• adding the force delta to the determined 3-dimensional force;
• and
• determining a 3-dimensional fluid flow estimate vector corresponding to the determined 3-dimensional force based on an inverted Fluid Flow to Force mapping function, wherein the mapping function is trained based on one or more training datasets and the 3-dimensional fluid flow estimate vector is indicative of a fluid flow affecting at least the lift and drag forces acting on the vehicle.