Comment on “Highly Efficient Sigma Point Filter for Spacecraft Attitude and Rate Estimation”

Abstract

In light of the intuition that a better symmetrical structure can further increase the numerical accuracy, the paper by Fan and Zeng (2009) developed a new sigma point construction strategy for the unscented Kalman filter (UKF), namely, geometric simplex sigma points (GSSP). This comment presents a different perspective from the standpoint of the numerical integration. In this respect, the GSSP constitutes an integration formula of degree 2 with equal weights. Then, we demonstrate that the GSSP can be derived through the orthogonal transformation from the basic points set of degree 2. Moreover, the method presented in this comment can be used to construct more accurate sigma points set for certain dynamic problems.