A bundle framework for observer design on smooth manifolds with symmetry

Abstract: The article presents a bundle framework for nonlinear observer design on a manifold with a Lie group action. The group action on the manifold decomposes the manifold to a quotient structure and an orbit space, and the problem of observer design for the entire system gets decomposed to a design over the orbit (the group space) and a design over the quotient space. The emphasis throughout the article is on presenting an overarching geometric structure; the special case when the group action is free is given special emphasis. Gradient based observer design on a Lie group is given explicit attention. The concepts developed are illustrated by applying them on well known examples, which include the action of $\mathbb{SO}(3)$ on $\mathbb{R}^3 \setminus {0}$ and the simultaneous localisation and mapping (SLAM) problem.