FLUID FLOW ESTIMATION AND NAVIGATION

The present invention is directed to methods, systems, and computer program products for determining a fluid flow estimate vector based on sensor measurements, from one or more inertial sensors, wherein the sensor measurements are indicative of a force on a vehicle. The force on the vehicle may be determined based on the received sensor measurements and a fluid flow estimate vector may be determined corresponding to the determined 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 fluid flow estimate vector is indicative of a fluid flow affecting the vehicle. The fluid flow estimate vector may be used to increase the accuracy of inertial navigation techniques, wherein the fluid flow estimate vector may be used with an estimate of the prevailing wind to estimate a ground velocity vector from which a vehicle position estimate may be determined.