Global Observability Analysis of a Nonholonomic Robot using Range Sensors

The global observability property of nonholonomic mobile robots equipped with a ranging systems is considered in this paper in relation to the localisation problem. The discrete time nature of the problem, induced by the fixed sampling frequency of the sensor, turns the problem into a set of algebraic conditions, whose solution naturally maps onto the control space of the robot. To the best of the Authors' knowledge, this is the first solution providing global observability results. The solution is reported for two different mobile robots, a unicycle-like and an unmanned fixed-wing robot.