Linear Kalman Filter for Attitude Estimation from Angular Rate and a Single Vector Measurement

In this paper, a new Kalman filtering scheme is designed in order to give the optimal attitude estimation with gyroscopic data and a single vector observation. The quaternion kinematic equation is adopted as the state model while the quaternion of the attitude determination from a strapdown sensor is treated as the measurement. Derivations of the attitude solution from a single vector observation along with its variance analysis are presented. The proposed filter is named as the Single Vector Observation Linear Kalman filter (SVO-LKF). Flexible design of the filter facilitates fast execution speed with respect to other filters with linearization. Simulations and experiments are conducted in the presence of large external acceleration andmagnetic distortion. Theresults show that, compared with representative filtering methods and attitude observers, the SVO-LKF owns the best estimation accuracy and it consumes much less time in the fusion process.