--This paper presents the design of a pose estimator for a four wheel independent steer four wheel independent drive (4WIS4WID) wall climbing mobile robot, based on the fusion of multimodal measurements, including wheel odometry, visual odometry, and an inertial measurement unit (IMU) data using Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) and Unscented Kalman Filter (UKF). The pose estimator is a critical component of wall climbing mobile robots, as their operational environment involves carrying precise measurement equipment and maintenance tools in construction, requiring information about pose on the building at the time of measurement. Due to the complex geometry and material properties of building fac ades, the use of traditional localization sensors such as laser, ultrasonic, or radar is often infeasible for wall-climbing robots. Moreover, GPS-based localization is generally unreliable in these environments because of signal degradation caused by reinforced concrete and electromagnetic interference. Consequently, robot odometry remains the primary source of velocity and position information, despite being susceptible to drift caused by both systematic and non-systematic errors. The calibrations of the robot's systematic parameters were conducted using nonlinear optimization and Levenberg-Marquardt methods as Newton-Gauss and gradient-based model fitting methods, while Genetic algorithm and Particle swarm were used as stochastic based methods for kinematic parameter calibration. Performance and results of the calibration methods and pose estimators were validated in detail with experiments on the experimental mobile wall climbing robot.

State estimation in control and systems engineering traditionally requires extensive manual system identification or data-collection effort. However, transformer-based foundation models in other domains have reduced data requirements by leveraging pre-trained generalist models. Ultimately, developing zero-shot foundation models of system dynamics could drastically reduce manual deployment effort. While recent work shows that transformer-based end-to-end approaches can achieve zero-shot performance on unseen systems, they are limited to sensor models seen during training. We introduce the foundation model unscented Kalman filter (FM-UKF), which combines a transformer-based model of system dynamics with analytically known sensor models via an UKF, enabling generalization across varying dynamics without retraining for new sensor configurations. We evaluate FM-UKF on a new benchmark of container ship models with complex dynamics, demonstrating a competitive accuracy, effort, and robustness trade-off compared to classical methods with approximate system knowledge and to an end-to-end approach. The benchmark and dataset are open sourced to further support future research in zero-shot state estimation via foundation models.

Accurate modeling is crucial in many engineering and scientific applications, yet obtaining a reliable process model for complex systems is often challenging. To address this challenge, we propose a novel framework, reservoir computing with unscented Kalman filtering (RCUKF), which integrates data-driven modeling via reservoir computing (RC) with Bayesian estimation through the unscented Kalman filter (UKF). The RC component learns the nonlinear system dynamics directly from data, serving as a surrogate process model in the UKF prediction step to generate state estimates in high-dimensional or chaotic regimes where nominal mathematical models may fail. Meanwhile, the UKF measurement update integrates real-time sensor data to correct potential drift in the data-driven model. We demonstrate RCUKF effectiveness on well-known benchmark problems and a real-time vehicle trajectory estimation task in a high-fidelity simulation environment.

This paper presents a novel framework for whole-body torque control of humanoid robots without joint torque sensors, designed for systems with electric motors and high-ratio harmonic drives. The approach integrates Physics-Informed Neural Networks (PINNs) for friction modeling and Unscented Kalman Filtering (UKF) for joint torque estimation, within a real-time torque control architecture. PINNs estimate nonlinear static and dynamic friction from joint and motor velocity readings, capturing effects like motor actuation without joint movement. The UKF utilizes PINN-based friction estimates as direct measurement inputs, improving torque estimation robustness. Experimental validation on the ergoCub humanoid robot demonstrates improved torque tracking accuracy, enhanced energy efficiency, and superior disturbance rejection compared to the state-of-the-art Recursive Newton-Euler Algorithm (RNEA), using a dynamic balancing experiment. The framework's scalability is shown by consistent performance across robots with similar hardware but different friction characteristics, without re-identification. Furthermore, a comparative analysis with position control highlights the advantages of the proposed torque control approach. The results establish the method as a scalable and practical solution for sensorless torque control in humanoid robots, ensuring torque tracking, adaptability, and stability in dynamic environments.

The unscented Kalman filter is an algorithm capable of handling nonlinear scenarios. Uncertainty in process noise covariance may decrease the filter estimation performance or even lead to its divergence. Therefore, it is important to adjust the process noise covariance matrix in real time. In this paper, we developed an adaptive neural unscented Kalman filter to cope with time-varying uncertainties during platform operation. To this end, we devised ProcessNet, a simple yet efficient end-to-end regression network to adaptively estimate the process noise covariance matrix. We focused on the nonlinear inertial sensor and Doppler velocity log fusion problem in the case of autonomous underwater vehicle navigation. Using a real-world recorded dataset from an autonomous underwater vehicle, we demonstrated our filter performance and showed its advantages over other adaptive and non-adaptive nonlinear filters.

This paper addresses the challenge of estimating the orientation, position, and velocity of a vehicle operating in three-dimensional (3D) space with six degrees of freedom (6-DoF). A Deep Learning-based Adaptation Mechanism (DLAM) is proposed to adaptively tune the noise covariance matrices of Kalman-type filters for the Visual-Inertial Navigation (VIN) problem, leveraging IMU-Vision-Net. Subsequently, an adaptively tuned Deep Learning Unscented Kalman Filter for 3D VIN (DeepUKF-VIN) is introduced to utilize the proposed DLAM, thereby robustly estimating key navigation components, including orientation, position, and linear velocity. The proposed DeepUKF-VIN integrates data from onboard sensors, specifically an inertial measurement unit (IMU) and visual feature points extracted from a camera, and is applicable for GPS-denied navigation. Its quaternion-based design effectively captures navigation nonlinearities and avoids the singularities commonly encountered with Euler-angle-based filters. Implemented in discrete space, the DeepUKF-VIN facilitates practical filter deployment. The filter's performance is evaluated using real-world data collected from an IMU and a stereo camera at low sampling rates. The results demonstrate filter stability and rapid attenuation of estimation errors, highlighting its high estimation accuracy. Furthermore, comparative testing against the standard Unscented Kalman Filter (UKF) in two scenarios consistently shows superior performance across all navigation components, thereby validating the efficacy and robustness of the proposed DeepUKF-VIN. Keywords: Deep Learning, Unscented Kalman Filter, Adaptive tuning, Estimation, Navigation, Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, Sensor-fusion.

This paper investigates the orientation, position, and linear velocity estimation problem of a rigid-body moving in three-dimensional (3D) space with six degrees-of-freedom (6 DoF). The highly nonlinear navigation kinematics are formulated to ensure global representation of the navigation problem. A computationally efficient Quaternion-based Navigation Unscented Kalman Filter (QNUKF) is proposed on $\mathbb{S}^{3}\times\mathbb{R}^{3}\times\mathbb{R}^{3}$ imitating the true nonlinear navigation kinematics and utilize onboard Visual-Inertial Navigation (VIN) units to achieve successful GPS-denied navigation. The proposed QNUKF is designed in discrete form to operate based on the data fusion of photographs garnered by a vision unit (stereo or monocular camera) and information collected by a low-cost inertial measurement unit (IMU). The photographs are processed to extract feature points in 3D space, while the 6-axis IMU supplies angular velocity and accelerometer measurements expressed with respect to the body-frame. Robustness and effectiveness of the proposed QNUKF have been confirmed through experiments on a real-world dataset collected by a drone navigating in 3D and consisting of stereo images and 6-axis IMU measurements. Also, the proposed approach is validated against standard state-of-the-art filtering techniques. IEEE Keywords: Localization, Navigation, Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, Sensor-fusion, Inertial Measurement Unit, Vision Unit.

In this paper, we present a nodal hydraulic head estimation methodology for water distribution networks (WDN) based on an Unscented Kalman Filter (UKF) scheme with application to leak localization. The UKF refines an initial estimation of the hydraulic state by considering the prediction model, as well as available pressure and demand measurements. To this end, it provides customized prediction and data assimilation steps. Additionally, the method is enhanced by dynamically updating the prediction function weight matrices. Performance testing on the Modena benchmark under realistic conditions demonstrates the method's effectiveness in enhancing state estimation and data-driven leak localization.

The Kessler syndrome refers to the escalating space debris from frequent space activities, threatening future space exploration. Addressing this issue is vital. Several AI models, including Convolutional Neural Networks, Kernel Principal Component Analysis, and Model-Agnostic Meta- Learning have been assessed with various data types. Earlier studies highlighted the combination of the YOLO object detector and a linear Kalman filter (LKF) for object detection and tracking. Advancing this, the current paper introduces a novel methodology for the Comprehensive Orbital Surveillance and Monitoring Of Space by Detecting Satellite Residuals (CosmosDSR) by combining YOLOv3 with an Unscented Kalman Filter (UKF) for tracking satellites in sequential images. Using the Spacecraft Recognition Leveraging Knowledge of Space Environment (SPARK) dataset for training and testing, the YOLOv3 precisely detected and classified all satellite categories (Mean Average Precision=97.18%, F1=0.95) with few errors (TP=4163, FP=209, FN=237). Both CosmosDSR and an implemented LKF used for comparison tracked satellites accurately for a mean squared error (MSE) and root mean squared error (RME) of MSE=2.83/RMSE=1.66 for UKF and MSE=2.84/RMSE=1.66 for LKF. The current study is limited to images generated in a space simulation environment, but the CosmosDSR methodology shows great potential in detecting and tracking satellites, paving the way for solutions to the Kessler syndrome.

Achieving highly accurate dynamic or simulator models that are close to the real robot can facilitate model-based controls (e.g., model predictive control or linear-quadradic regulators), model-based trajectory planning (e.g., trajectory optimization), and decrease the amount of learning time necessary for reinforcement learning methods. Thus, the objective of this work is to learn the residual errors between a dynamic and/or simulator model and the real robot. This is achieved using a neural network, where the parameters of a neural network are updated through an Unscented Kalman Filter (UKF) formulation. Using this method, we model these residual errors with only small amounts of data -- a necessity as we improve the simulator/dynamic model by learning directly from real-world operation. We demonstrate our method on robotic hardware (e.g., manipulator arm, and a wheeled robot), and show that with the learned residual errors, we can further close the reality gap between dynamic models, simulations, and actual hardware.