• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.14 no.9
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• pp.865-872
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• 2008

Spacecraft attitude estimation using the nonlinear unscented filter is addressed to fully utilize capabilities of the unscented transformation. To release significant computational load, an efficient technique is proposed by reasonably removing correlation between random variables. This modification introduces considerable reduction of sigma points and computational burden in matrix square-root calculation for most nonlinear systems. Unscented filter technique makes use of a set of sample points to predict mean and covariance. The general QUEST(QUaternion ESTimator) algorithm preserves explicitly the quaternion normalization, whereas extended Kalman filter(EKF) implicitly obeys the constraint. For spacecraft attitude estimation based on quaternion, an approach to computing quaternion means from sampled quaternions with guarantee of the quaternion norm constraint is introduced applying a constrained optimization technique. Finally, the performance of the new approach is demonstrated using a star tracker and rate-gyro measurements.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.376-381
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• 2006

In this paper, the quaternion, the dual Euler, and the direction cosine methods are numerically compared using a non-aerodynamic 6 degree-of-freedom rigid model at all-attitude angles of an aircraft. The dual Euler method turns out to be superior to the others in the applications because it shows better numerical accuracy, stability, and robustness in integration step sizes. The dual Euler method is affordably less efficient than the quaternion method in terms of computational cost. Numerical accuracy and stability, which allow larger integration step sizes, are more critical in modern real-time applications than computational efficiency because of today's increased computational power. If the quaternion method is required because of constraints in computation time, then a suppression mechanism should be provided for algebraic constraint errors which will eventually add computational burden.

• International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Sciences
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.24-36
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• 2011

A new approach for spacecraft absolute attitude estimation based on the unscented Kalman filter (UKF) is extended to relative attitude estimation and navigation. This approach for nonlinear systems has faster convergence than the approach based on the standard extended Kalman filter (EKF) even with inaccurate initial conditions in attitude estimation and navigation problems. The filter formulation employs measurements obtained from a vision sensor to provide multiple line(-) of(-) sight vectors from the spacecraft to another spacecraft. The line-of-sight measurements are coupled with gyro measurements and dynamic models in an UKF to determine relative attitude, position and gyro biases. A vector of generalized Rodrigues parameters is used to represent the local error-quaternion between two spacecraft. A multiplicative quaternion-error approach is derived from the local error-quaternion, which guarantees the maintenance of quaternion unit constraint in the filter. The scenario for bounded relative motion is selected to verify this extended application of the UKF. Simulation results show that the UKF is more robust than the EKF under realistic initial attitude and navigation error conditions.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.243-248
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• 2010

This study addresses spacecraft moment of inertial estimation approach using Modified Rodrigues Parameters(MRP). The MRP offer advantage by avoiding singularity in Kalman Filter design for attitude determination caused by the norm constraint of quaternion parameters. Meanwhile, MRP may suffer singularity for large angular displacement, so that we designed appropriate reference attitude motion for accurate estimation. The proposed approach is expected to provide stable error covariance update with accurate spacecraft mass property estimation results.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.81-87
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• 2019

One of the major issues in inertial and magnetic measurement unit (IMMU)-based 3D orientation estimation is compensation for magnetic disturbances in magnetometer signals, as the magnetic disturbance is a major cause of inaccurate yaw estimation. In the proposed approach, a kinematic constraint is used to provide a measurement equation in addition to the accelerometer and magnetometer signals to mitigate the disturbance effect on the orientation estimation. Although a Kalman filter (KF) is the most popular framework for IMMU-based orientation estimation, a complementary filter (CF) has its own advantages over KF in terms of mathematical simplicity and ease of implementation. Accordingly, this paper introduces a quaternion-based CF with a constraint-combined correction equation. Furthermore, the weight of the constraint relative to the magnetometer signal is adjusted to adapt to magnetic environments to optimally deal with the magnetic disturbance. In the results of our validation experiments, the average and maximum of yaw errors were $1.17^{\circ}$ and $1.65^{\circ}$ from the proposed CF, respectively, and $8.88^{\circ}$ and $14.73^{\circ}$ from the conventional CF, respectively, showing the superiority of the proposed approach.

• International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Sciences
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.10-20
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• 2007

For spacecraft attitude control, reaction wheel (RW) steering laws with more than three wheels for three-axis attitude control can be derived by using a control allocation (CA) approach.1-2 The CA technique deals with a problem of distributing a given control demand to available sets of actuators.3-4 There are many references for CA with applications to aerospace systems. For spacecraft, the control torque command for three body-fixed reference frames can be constructed by a combination of multiple wheels, usually four-wheel pyramid sets. Multi-wheel configurations can be exploited to satisfy a body-axis control torque requirement while satisfying objectives such as minimum control energy.1-2 In general, the reaction wheel steering laws determine required torque command for each wheel in the form of matrix pseudo-inverse. In general, the attitude control command is generated in the form of a feedback control. The spacecraft body angular rate measured by gyros is used to estimate angular displacement also.⁵ Combination of the body angular rate and attitude parameters such as quaternion and MRPs(Modified Rodrigues Parameters) is typically used in synthesizing the control command which should be produced by RWs.¹ The attitude sensor signals are usually corrupted by noise; gyros tend to contain errors such as drift and random noise. The attitude determination system can estimate such errors, and provide best true signals for feedback control.⁶ Even if the attitude determination system, for instance, sophisticated algorithm such as the EKF(Extended Kalman Filter) algorithm⁶, can eliminate the errors efficiently, it is quite probable that the control command still contains noise sources. The noise and/or other high frequency components in the control command would cause the wheel speed to change in an undesirable manner. The closed-loop system, governed by the feedback control law, is also directly affected by the noise due to imperfect sensor characteristics. The noise components in the sensor signal should be mitigated so that the control command is isolated from the noise effect. This can be done by adding a filter to the sensor output or preventing rapid change in the control command. Dynamic control allocation(DCA), recently studied by Härkegård, is to distribute the control command in the sense of dynamics⁴: the allocation is made over a certain time interval, not a fixed time instant. The dynamic behavior of the control command is taken into account in the course of distributing the control command. Not only the control command requirement, but also variation of the control command over a sampling interval is included in the performance criterion to be optimized. The result is a control command in the form of a finite difference equation over the given time interval.⁴ It results in a filter dynamics by taking the previous control command into account for the synthesis of current control command. Stability of the proposed dynamic control allocation (CA) approach was proved to ensure the control command is bounded at the steady-state. In this study, we extended the results presented in Ref. 4 by adding a two-step dynamic CA term in deriving the control allocation law. Also, the strict equality constraint, between the virtual and actual control inputs, is relaxed in order to construct control command with a smooth profile. The proposed DCA technique is applied to a spacecraft attitude control problem. The sensor noise and/or irregular signals, which are existent in most of spacecraft attitude sensors, can be handled effectively by the proposed approach.