Propagation of uncertainty in rigid body attitude flows

Motivated by attitude control and attitude estimation problems for a rigid body, computational methods are proposed to propagate uncertainties in the angular velocity and the attitude. Uncertainties in the angular velocity and attitude are described in terms of ellipsoidal sets that are propagated through this nonlinear attitude flow. Computational methods are proposed, one method based on a local linearization of the attitude flow and two methods based on propagation of a small (unscented) sample selected from the initial uncertainty ellipsoid. Each of these computational methods is constructed using a Lie group variational integrator, viewed as a discretization of the attitude dynamics. Computational results are obtained that indicate: (1) the strongly nonlinear attitude flow characteristics; and (2) the limitations of each of these methods, and indeed any method, in providing effective global bounds on the nonlinear attitude flow.