Analysis of local observability for feature localization in a maritime environment using an omnidirectional camera

Autonomous operation by a surface vehicle in a maritime setting requires that the surface vehicle detects non-water objects, including shoreline, hazards to navigation, and other moving vessels. In order to assess the utility of an omnidirectional camera for detecting and localizing non- water objects, we rigorously investigate observability of both stationary and moving features. For stationary features, we find that all but a small subset of the features are observable. For moving features, we show that an important class of feature and ASV trajectories are not observable.