 Orthogonal structure on a real vector bundle

An orthogonal structure is a reduction of the transition functions of a real rank-$r$ vector bundle to the orthogonal group. Its orthonormal frames define a fiber metric, independent of the chosen frame because orthogonal transitions preserve the inner product. Conversely a fiber metric gives smooth orthonormal frames by the Gram-Schmidt process, with orthogonal transition matrices. This equivalence does not require the vector bundle to be globally trivial.