Rigid body attitude tracking without angular velocity feedback

In this paper, we revisit the classical problem of attitude tracking for a rigid body. The interesting difference in the formulation is the assumption that only attitude measurements are available. We proceed to construct glo bally stabilizing control laws in terms of a minimal set of three-dimension al kinematic parameters that enable the rigid body to track any specified t rajectory without requiring angular velocity measurements. The results pres ented here complement and extend some recent developments available for the nonminimal case of Euler parameters (quaternions). (C) 2001 Elsevier Scien ce B.V. All rights reserved.