Polarization Meridian Plane-Based 3-D Attitude Measurements: A Bio-Inspired Approach

As a bionic sensor inspired by the behaviors of insects, a polarized light compass determines the attitude information from the polarization distribution of the sunlight with its biomimetic optical structure. In this article, focusing on the problem that the existing attitude determination method can only obtain the 1-D heading angle from polarization mode, a polarization meridian plane (PMP)-based 3-D attitude determination method is presented. In our work, the solar polarization meridional plane is modeled as introduced information independent of the solar vector. It connects more polarization vectors (solar vector, zenith direction, and neutral point) in the measurement system and contributes to an additional relational model, that is, the PMP frame conversion model. Then, by combining with the solar vector conversion model, the proposed method obtains the real-time three-axis attitude angles by the image-based polarized light compass itself. Finally, numerical simulations and outdoor experiments are conducted to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method. The proposed PMP-based method makes it possible for the polarized light compass to have the ability of 3-D attitude determination, that is, pitch, roll, and yaw angles.