Reduced Sigma Point Filtering for Partially Linear Models

A method for performing unscented Kalman filtering with a reduced number of sigma points is proposed. The procedure is applicable when either the process or measurement equations are partially linear in the sense that only a subset of the elements of the state vector undergo a nonlinear transformation. It is shown that for such models second-order accuracy in the moments required for the unscented Kalman filter recursion can be obtained using a number of sigma points determined by the number of nonlinearly transformed elements rather than the dimension of the state vector. A procedure for computing the sigma points is developed. An application of the proposed method to smoothed target state estimation from bearings measurements is presented