Abstract
The relative pose estimation of a space noncooperative target is an attractive yet challenging task due to the complexity of the target background and illumination, and the lack of a priori knowledge. Unfortunately, these negative factors have a grave impact on the estimation accuracy and the robustness of filter algorithms. In response, this paper proposes a novel filter algorithm to estimate the relative pose to improve the robustness based on a stereovision system. First, to obtain a coarse relative pose, the weighted total least squares (WTLS) algorithm is adopted to estimate the relative pose based on several feature points. The resulting relative pose is fed into the subsequent filter scheme as observation quantities. Second, the classic Bayes filter is exploited to estimate the relative state except for moment-of-inertia ratios. Additionally, the one-step prediction results are used as feedback for WTLS initialization. The proposed algorithm successfully eliminates the dependency on continuous tracking of several fixed points. Finally, comparison experiments demonstrate that the proposed algorithm presents a better performance in terms of robustness and convergence time.
VI-RPE: Visual-Inertial Relative Pose Estimation for Aerial Vehicles