Design of a Robust Target Tracker for Parameter Variations and Unknown Inputs

This paper describes the procedure to develop a robust estimator design method for a target tracker that accounts for both structured real parameter uncertainties and unknown inputs. Two robust design approaches are combined: the Mini-p-Norm. design method to consider real parameter uncertainties and the $H_{\infty}$ design technique for unknown disturbances and unknown inputs. Constant estimator gains are computed that guarantee the robust performance of the estimator in the presence of parameter variations in the target model and unknown inputs to the target. The new estimator has two design parameters. One design parameter allows the trade off between small estimator error variance and low sensitivity to unknown parameter variations. Another design parameter allows the trade off between the robustness to real parameter variations and the robustness to unknown inputs. This robust estimator design method was applied to the longitudinal motion tracking problem of a T-38 aircraft.