Systems and methods for attitude fault detection based on air data and aircraft control settings

A fault detection system for aircraft attitude measurement system, the fault detection system comprising:

• a sensor monitor coupled to a first inertial measurement unit of the aircraft attitude measurement system, the sensor monitor comprising:
• an aircraft model of an aircraft, the aircraft model configured to model a plurality of aircraft states, the plurality of aircraft states including at least an aircraft attitude state, an aircraft velocity state, a sink rate error state, and a wind velocity state;
• a propagator-estimator configured to propagate and update the plurality of aircraft states of the aircraft model based on air data measurements and attitude measurements from the first inertial measurement unit;
• and
• a residual evaluator coupled to the propagator-estimator and configured to input measurement error residual values generated by the propagator-estimator, wherein the residual evaluator outputs an alert signal when the measurement error residual values exceed a predetermined statistical threshold.

A fault detection method for an aircraft attitude measurement system, method comprising:

• monitoring attitude solution data generated by a first inertial measurement unit of an aircraft attitude measurement system;
• executing a propagator-estimator configured with an aircraft model for a plurality of aircraft states based on an aircraft attitude state vector, a velocity state vector, a Sink Rate Error state vector, and a wind velocity state vector;
• generating measurement error residual values using the propagator-estimator, wherein the propagator-estimator is configured to iteratively predict and update the plurality of aircraft states of the aircraft model;
• and
• comparing the measurement error residual values against a predetermined statistical threshold and generating an alert signal when the measurement error residual values exceed the predetermined statistical threshold.