Analysis of the relative attitude estimation and control problem for satellite inspection and orbital rendezvous

Abstract

A key component of satellite inspection and orbital rendezvous missions is relative attitude estimation and control. This paper analyzes a specific angles-only relative attitude estimation concept where it is assumed that a chaser spacecraft is capable of processing onboard imagery of a resident space object (RSO) and identifying the pixel locations of preselected RSO features. The pixel measurements along with chaser gyro and star camera data are processed by an extended Kalman filter to provide continuous estimates of the relative position and attitude. A novel linear covariance program is used to evaluate the effects of feature-tracking camera errors, gyro errors, star camera errors, measurement rates, and translation and rotational disturbances on relative navigation performance. Linear covariance techniques are further employed to evaluate the closed-loop performance of a relative attitude and position control system.