Networked pointing system: Bearing-only target localization and pointing control

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel bearing-only target localization and pointing control method for networked agents, requiring minimal assumptions and ensuring asymptotic convergence of estimation and tracking errors.

Contribution

It proposes a two-step solution with a bearing-only estimator and control law, utilizing a virtual fusion node to relax assumptions and guarantee convergence.

Findings

Estimation and tracking errors converge asymptotically to zero.

Only two non-collinear agents are needed for localizability.

The method is validated through a video demonstration.

Abstract

In the paper, we formulate the target-pointing consensus problem where the headings of agents are required to point at a common target. Only a few agents in the network can measure the bearing information of the target. A two-step solution consisting of a bearing-only estimator for target localization and a control law for target pointing is constructed to address this problem. Compared to the strong assumptions of existing works, we only require two agents not collinear with the target to ensure localizability. By introducing the concept of virtual fusion node, we prove that both the estimation error and the tracking error converge asymptotically to the origin. The video demonstration of the verification can be found at https://youtu.be/S9- eyofk1DY.