Linear parametrically varying systems with brief instabilities: an application to vision/inertial navigation

This paper addresses the problem of nonlinear filter design to estimate the relative position and velocity of an unmanned air vehicle (UAV) with respect to a point on a ship using infrared (IR) vision, inertial, and air data sensors. Sufficient conditions are derived for the existence of a particular type of complementary filters with guaranteed stability and performance in the presence of so-called out-of-frame events that arise when the vision system loses its target temporarily. The results obtained build upon new developments in the theory of linear parametrically varying systems (LPVs) with brief instabilities - also reported in the paper - and provide the proper framework to deal with out-of-frame events. Field tests with a prototype UAV illustrate the performance of the filter and the scope of applications of the new theory developed.     

Application of nonlinear filtering to navigation system designusing passive sensors

The problem of navigation system design for autonomous aircraft landing is addressed. New nonlinear filter structures are introduced to estimate the position and velocity of an aircraft with respect to a possibly moving landing site, such as a naval vessel, based on measurements provided by airborne vision and inertial sensors. By exploring the geometry of the navigation problem, the navigation filter dynamics are cast in the framework of linear parametrically varying systems (LPVs). Using this set-up, filter performance and stability are studied in an H_∞ setting by resorting to the theory of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). The design of nonlinear, regionally stable filters to meet adequate H_∞ performance measures is thus converted into that of determining the feasibility of a related set of LMIs and finding a solution to them, if it exists. This is done by using-widely available numerical tools that borrow from convex optimization techniques. The mathematical framework that is required for integrated vision/inertial navigation system design is developed and a design example for an air vehicle landing on an aircraft carrier is detailed     

Navigation system design using time-varying complementary filters

A new methodology for the design of navigation systems for autonomous vehicles is introduced. Using simple kinematic relationships, the problem of estimating the velocity and position of an autonomous vehicle is solved by resorting to special bilinear time-varying filters. These are the natural generalization of linear time-invariant complementary filters that are commonly used to properly merge sensor information available at low frequency with that available in the complementary region. Complementary filters lend themselves to frequency domain interpretations that provide valuable insight into the filtering design process. This work extends these properties to the time-varying setting by resorting to the theory of linear differential inclusions and by converting the problem of weighted filter performance analysis into that of determining the feasibility of a related set of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). Using this set-up, the stability of the resulting filters as well as their "frequency-like" performance can be assessed using efficient numerical analysis tools that borrow from convex optimization techniques. The mathematical background that is required for complementary time-varying filter analysis and design is introduced. Its application to the design of a navigation system that estimates position and velocity of an autonomous vehicle by complementing position information available from GPS with the velocity information provided by a Doppler sonar system is described.