An Adaptive Optimal Control Approach to Monocular Depth Observability Maximization

This paper presents an integral concurrent learning (ICL)-based observer for a monocular camera to accurately estimate the Euclidean distance to features on a stationary object, under the restriction that state information is unavailable. Using distance estimates, an infinite horizon optimal regulation problem is solved, which aims to regulate the camera to a goal location while maximizing feature observability. Lyapunov-based stability analysis is used to guarantee exponential convergence of depth estimates and input-to-state stability of the goal location relative to the camera. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is verified in simulation, and a table illustrating improved observability through better conditioning of the regressor is provided.