A meticulous covariance adaptive Kalman filter for satellite attitude estimation

Abstract

Aiming at the problems of model errors, non-Gaussian noise and measurement anomaly in the spacecraft attitude estimation system, this article proposes an improved adaptive filtering method based on covariance matching, which solves the problems of simultaneous dynamics model error and measurement model error in the attitude estimation system, and at the same time, effectively reduces the effects of non-Gaussian noise and large outlier situations occurring in the vector measurement sensor. Firstly, an adaptive filtering algorithm based on the innovation sequence estimation covariance is investigated under the framework of multiplicative extended Kalman filter (MEKF), which is used to correct process noise covariance, then the Sage–Husa adaptive Kalman filtering (SHAKF) method is combined to correct the measurement noise covariance, and finally the meticulous covariance adaptive multiplicative extended Kalman filter is designed. The proposed algorithm uses both innovation and SHAKF methods to correct the two covariance matrices simultaneously. Several attitude estimation simulation scenarios are set up to simulate the proposed algorithm in the presence of model errors, non-Gaussian noise, and large outlier. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm outperforms the conventional algorithms in terms of estimation accuracy and robustness.