An algorithm and observability research of autonomous navigation and joint attitude determination in asteroid exploration descent stage

Abstract

In this paper, an autonomous relative navigation and joint attitude determination algorithm in asteroid exploration descent stage is researched based on feature point information of perpendicular asteroid surface image observed by optical navigation camera, distance vectors from spacecraft to asteroid measured by three angled installed lidars and relative velocity increment measured by accelerometer when the relative distance vector to the centroid of asteroid can not be obtained. The inertial attitude of spacecraft is determined by sun vector, star vectors and inertial angular velocity respectively measured by sun sensor, star trackers and inertial reference unit. Also, in order to obtain measurement error model transferred from sensor noise, a covariance matrix solver considering error correlation is presented via the error model of normalized vector to first order. Numerical simulation and improved observability evaluation of filtering are undertaken to discuss the results of complete sensor observation and weak observation of lidars, and verify the effectiveness of the presented relative navigation and attitude determination algorithm.