A Deterministic Attitude Estimation Using a Single Vector Information and Rate Gyros

This paper proposes a deterministic estimator for the estimation of the attitude of a rigid body. A deterministic estimator uses a minimal set of information and does not try to minimize a cost function or lit the measurements into a stochastic process. The proposed estimator obtains the attitude estimation utilizing only the properties of the rotational group SO(3). The information set required by the proposed estimator is a single vector information and rate gyro readings. For systems in which one of the rotational freedom is constrained, the proposed estimator provides an accurate estimate of the reduced attitude. The performance of the algorithm is verilied on different experimental testbeds.