A general symmetry-preserving observer for aided attitude heading reference systems

We generalize several recent works on nonlinear observers for aided attitude heading reference systems: we propose a symmetry-preserving nonlinear observer which merges the most common measurements available on an aircraft (altitude, Earth-fixed and body-fixed velocity, inertial and magnetic sensors). It can be seen as an alternative to the Extended Kalman Filter, but easier to tune and computationally much more economic. Moreover it has by design a nice geometrical structure appealing from an engineering viewpoint. We illustrate its good performance on simulation and experimental results.