Gradient-like observer design on the Special Euclidean group SE(3) with system outputs on the real projective space

Abstract

A nonlinear observer on the Special Euclidean group SE(3) for full pose estimation, that takes the system outputs on the real projective space directly as inputs, is proposed. The observer derivation is based on a recent advanced theory on nonlinear observer design. A key advantage with respect to existing pose observers on SE(3) is that we can now incorporate in a unique observer different types of measurements such as vectorial measurements of known inertial vectors and position measurements of known feature points. The proposed observer is extended allowing for the compensation of unknown constant bias present in the velocity measurements. Rigorous stability analyses are equally provided. Excellent performance of the proposed observers are shown by means of simulations.