{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,12]],"date-time":"2026-05-12T21:13:28Z","timestamp":1778620408143,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":42,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"12","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,6,12]],"date-time":"2024-06-12T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1718150400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sensors"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Investigating aircraft flight dynamics often requires dynamic wind tunnel testing. This paper proposes a non-contact, off-board instrumentation method using vision-based techniques. The method utilises a sequential process of Harris corner detection, Kanade\u2013Lucas\u2013Tomasi tracking, and quaternions to identify the Euler angles from a pair of cameras, one with a side view and the other with a top view. The method validation involves simulating a 3D CAD model for rotational motion with a single degree-of-freedom. The numerical analysis quantifies the results, while the proposed approach is analysed analytically. This approach results in a 45.41% enhancement in accuracy over an earlier direction cosine matrix method. Specifically, the quaternion-based method achieves root mean square errors of 0.0101 rad\/s, 0.0361 rad\/s, and 0.0036 rad\/s for the dynamic measurements of roll rate, pitch rate, and yaw rate, respectively. Notably, the method exhibits a 98.08% accuracy for the pitch rate. These results highlight the performance of quaternion-based attitude estimation in dynamic wind tunnel testing. Furthermore, an extended Kalman filter is applied to integrate the generated on-board instrumentation data (inertial measurement unit, potentiometer gimbal) and the results of the proposed vision-based method. The extended Kalman filter state estimation achieves root mean square errors of 0.0090 rad\/s, 0.0262 rad\/s, and 0.0034 rad\/s for the dynamic measurements of roll rate, pitch rate, and yaw rate, respectively. This method exhibits an improved accuracy of 98.61% for the estimation of pitch rate, indicating its higher efficiency over the standalone implementation of the direction cosine method for dynamic wind tunnel testing.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/s24123795","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,6,12]],"date-time":"2024-06-12T04:15:27Z","timestamp":1718165727000},"page":"3795","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":6,"title":["Quaternion-Based Attitude Estimation of an Aircraft Model Using Computer Vision"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"24","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0006-6648-3158","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Pavithra","family":"Kasula","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Centre for Aeronautics, Cranfield University, Cranfield MK43 0AL, UK"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6310-8946","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"James F.","family":"Whidborne","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Centre for Aeronautics, Cranfield University, Cranfield MK43 0AL, UK"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7839-3949","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Zeeshan A.","family":"Rana","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Centre for Aeronautics, Cranfield University, Cranfield MK43 0AL, UK"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,6,12]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","first-page":"267","article-title":"Investigating pitching moment stall through dynamic wind tunnel test","volume":"234","author":"Pontillo","year":"2020","journal-title":"J. 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