On the Choice of Coordinates for Control Problems on SO(3)

Many alternative coordinate choices exist for the description of the rotational motion of a rigid body. Not all the choices are equivalent with respect to their domain of validity for accurate attitude representation or the ease they o er in the control design process. In this paper we presenttwochoices of coordinates which seem to be appropriate for two important control problems: the stabilization of a rigid body with reduced control actuation and stabilization with limited sensor information. Both coordinate sets have the common characteristic of introducing a passive map from the angular velocities to the attitude coordinates. 1