The Attitude Consensus Problem via an Output Based Adaptive Distributed Observer Approach

The attitude consensus problem of multiple rigid body systems has been studied using the adaptive distributed observer, which relies on the state of the leader system. In this paper, we further consider solving the attitude consensus problem of multiple rigid body systems by a so-called output based adaptive distributed observer, which only relies on the output of the leader system. This new approach is more practical in the sense that it does not assume the whole state of the leader system is available for the control law.