Smart compass for unmanned aerial system

A system for providing stable heading information to an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) operating near high-voltage power lines, the system comprising:

• tri-axial magnetometer configured to sample magnetic field data at a rate sufficient to digitize 60 Hz electromagnetic interference;
• a digital signal processor configured to apply a low-pass filter algorithm to the sampled magnetometer data to attenuate high-frequency noise and electromagnetic interference;
• and
• an interface configured to transmit the filtered magnetometer data to a UAV autopilot or navigation system for use in flight control.

A device comprising:

• a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium;
• and
• one or more processors coupled to the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, wherein the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprises program instructions that, when executed on the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:
• receiving raw magnetometer data from a tri-axial magnetometer mounted on an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), the magnetometer sampling at a rate sufficient to digitize a mains frequency signal;
• filtering the raw magnetometer data using a digital low-pass filter algorithm to attenuate the mains frequency signal;
• and
• transmitting the filtered magnetometer data to a navigation or autopilot system of the UAV to provide stable heading information during flight.