State Estimation and Control for Systems with Perspective Outputs

In this paper we consider the problem of estimating the state of a system with perspective outputs. We formulate the problem in a deterministic setting by searching for the value of the state that is “most compatible” with the dynamics, in the sense that it requires the least amount of noise to explain the measured output. We show that, under appropriate observability assumptions, the optimal estimate converges globally to the true value of the state and can be used to design output-feedback controllers by using the estimated state to drive a state-feedback controller. We apply these results to the estimation of position and orientation of a controlled rigid body, using measurements from a charged-coupled-device camera attached to the body.