Application of Nonlinear Filtering to Navigation System Design Using Passive Sensors

Abstract

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 H1 setting by resorting to the theory of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). The design of nonlinear, regionally stable filters to meet adequate H1 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.