An Experimentally Validated Attitude Observer Based on Range and Inertial Measurements

Abstract This paper addresses the problem of attitude and rate gyros bias estimation, based on inertial data and range measurements from beacons installed in inertial frame and acoustic sensors fixed in vehicle frame. A nonlinear observer is proposed and its stability and performance properties are studied resorting to Lyapunov techniques. The estimation error is shown to converge exponentially fast to the desired equilibrium point in any closed neighborhood inside the region of attraction in the presence of bias in the rate gyros. The performance of the proposed nonlinear observer is illustrated in simulation and experimentally validated using a high precision calibration table, which provides ground truth signals for comparison with the resulting estimates.