def METHOD_NAME(a1, a2, *args, **kwargs):
    """Raise an assertion if two axis-angle are not approximately equal.
    Usually we assume that the angle is within [0, pi). However, this function
    ignores this constraint and will normalize the representations before
    comparison. See numpy.testing.assert_array_almost_equal for a more detailed
    documentation of the other parameters.
    Parameters
    ----------
    a1 : array-like, shape (3,)
        Axis of rotation and rotation angle: angle * (x, y, z)
    a2 : array-like, shape (3,)
        Axis of rotation and rotation angle: angle * (x, y, z)
    args : tuple
        Positional arguments that will be passed to
        `assert_array_almost_equal`
    kwargs : dict
        Positional arguments that will be passed to
        `assert_array_almost_equal`
    """
    angle1 = np.linalg.norm(a1)
    angle2 = np.linalg.norm(a2)
    # required despite normalization in case of 180 degree rotation
    if (abs(angle1) == np.pi and abs(angle2) == np.pi and
            any(np.sign(a1) != np.sign(a2))):
        a1 = -a1
    a1 = norm_compact_axis_angle(a1)
    a2 = norm_compact_axis_angle(a2)
    assert_array_almost_equal(a1, a2, *args, **kwargs)