A geometric moment-based observer for global range and local orientation identification

A reduced-order globally convergent observer to estimate the depth of an object projected on the image plane of a camera is presented, assuming that the object is planar or has a planar limb surface and the orientation of the plane is known. A local result can be obtained when the plane unit normal is unknown, and the latter is estimated together with the depth of the object. The observer exploits the image moments of the object as measured features. The estimation is achieved by rendering attractive and invariant a manifold in the extended state space of the system and the observer. The problem is reduced to the solution of a system of partial differential equations.