Output feedback tracking control for rigid body attitude via immersion and invariance angular velocity observers

Summary A novel immersion and invariance (I&I) angular velocity observer is presented for the attitude tracking control of a rigid body with the lack of angular rate. Global exponential convergence of angular velocity estimate errors are guaranteed by an innovative filter design for the estimates' Euclidean norm. The proposed method requires fewer filter states compared with existing I&I angular velocity observer designs, which achieves a simpler closed‐loop structure (dynamic reduction). The observer synthesis and convergence are independent of the control torque, which leads to much convenience in establishing “separation property” when combining a proportional‐derivative attitude tracking controller driven by angular velocity estimates. A rigorous stability analysis is provided to ensure the (almost) global asymptotic convergence of the overall closed‐loop tracking errors, and several numerical simulations are carried out to demonstrate the effectiveness of the combined implementation of proposed angular velocity observer and full‐state feedback attitude tracking controller.