Extended Kalman Filter on SE(3) for Geometric Control of a Quadrotor UAV

Abstract: An extended Kalman filter (EKF) is developed on the special Euclidean group, SE(3) for geometric control of a quadrotor UAV. It is obtained by performing an extensive linearization on SE(3) to estimate the state of the quadrotor from noisy measurements. Proposed estimator considers all the coupling effects between rotational and translational dynamics, and it is developed in a coordinate-free fashion. The desirable features of the proposed EKF are illustrated by numerical examples and experimental results for several scenarios. The proposed estimation scheme on SE(3) has been unprecedented and these results can be particularly useful for aggressive maneuvers in GPS denied environments or in situations where parts of onboard sensors fail.