Attitude Estimation Based on Robust Information Cubature Quaternion Filter

We propose a robust attitude estimation method for multisensor systems with heavy-tailed noise. The attitude model is represented by a quaternion, and the propagation process in the filter is based on a gyro-based model. To avoid the constraint of quaternion, the quaternion is converted to modified Rodrigues parameters during the prediction and update process. Instead of the minimum mean square error principle, the maximum correntropy criterion is applied in the update process, which is robust to heavy-tailed noises. Considering the linear form in the update process, the information filtering algorithm is applied in the proposed method to simplify the calculation of multisensor information fusion. Moreover, the application of information filtering algorithm can also avoid the numerical problem that zero weight functions cannot be incorporated into the Gaussian filtering framework. Simulations for several cases are performed, and the simulation results indicate the robustness and efficiency of the proposed filter.