A nonlinear helicopter tracker using attitude measurements

Extended-Kalman-filter-based trackers are discussed for maneuvering helicopters that use body angle and rotor tip-path-plane angle measurements in addition to the usual radar position measurements. Improvements were found in tracker performance when the body rotation and rotor tip-path-plane degrees of freedom were modeled within the extended Kalman filter. Tracker performance was further improved when measurements of body angles and rotor tip-path-plane angles were made available to the tracker