2-D distributed pose estimation of multi-agent systems using bearing measurements

This article studies distributed pose (orientation and position) estimation of leader–follower multi-agent systems over κ-layer graphs in 2-D plane. Only the leaders have access to their orientations and positions, while the followers can measure the relative bearings or (angular and linear) velocities in their unknown local coordinate frames. For the orientation estimation, the local relative bearings are used to obtain the relative orientations among the agents, based on which a distributed orientation estimation algorithm is proposed for each follower to estimate its orientation. For the position estimation, the local relative bearings are used to obtain the position constraints among the agents, and a distributed position estimation algorithm is proposed for each follower to estimate its position by solving its position constraints. Both the orientation and position estimation errors converge to zero asymptotically. A simulation example is given to verify the theoretical results.