Attitude observers for accelerated vehicles using IMU and GPS measurements

In this paper, we present two new nonlinear attitude observers for accelerated vehicles moving in 3-D space using GPS velocity and IMU measures. These observers are developed based on the idea that for highly dynamic motions, the acceleration or the error affecting acceleration can be strongly related to dynamic changes of velocity errors. The two observers have ensured the convergence to zero of error in very short time and for any almost initial conditions. Conditions are given to guarantee the asymptotic stability of the system. Simulation results have proven the better performance of these observers compared to results obtained by other observers recently developed in the literature.