Abstract
Compared to the error factors of the Linear Array Digital Sun Sensor (DSS), those of the Area Array DSS are complicated and methods used for error compensation are not valid or simple enough. This paper presents the main error factors of the Area Array DSS and proposes an effective method to compensate them. The procedure of error compensation of Area Array DSS includes three steps. First, the geometric error of calibration is compensated; second, the coordinate map method is used to compensate the error caused by optical refraction; third, the high order polynomial-fitting method is applied to calculate the tangent of the sun angles; finally, the arc tangent method is used to calculate the sun angles. Experimental results of the product of the High Accuracy Sun Sensor indicate that the precision is better than 0.02° during the cone field of view (CFOV) of 10°, and the precision is better than 0.14° during the CFOV 10° to 64°. The proposed compensation method effectively compensates the major error factors and significantly improves the measure precision of the Area APS DSS.
Highlights
Sun Sensor, a device for satellite attitude control, is used to calculate the attitude angle between the sun and the satellite
The measurement error in cone field of view (FOV) 10° is smaller than 0.02° and that in FOV 10~64° is smaller than 0.14°
Previous works on Area Array Digital Sun Sensor (DSS) other than this paper do not undertake definite measurements to compensate for the two major error factors, which are the geometry error of fixing and the optical refraction caused by the surface protection glass of the image detector
Summary
Sun Sensor, a device for satellite attitude control, is used to calculate the attitude angle between the sun and the satellite. In order to match the miniaturization of satellites, the satellite modules are required to be of minimal size, so sun sensors must have small size, light weight, and low power consumption. Due to its high accuracy, large field of view (FOV), small size, and low power consumption, the new Area Array APS DSS can measure the two axis sun angles. In order to achieve high measurement accuracy, it is necessary to research the error compensation of Area. Using the method provided in thesis [6–13] to compensate the error of Area DSS, it is difficult to reach high accuracy when the two axis incident angles are both larger than 40°, and some methods are suitable for Linear Array DSS but are not suitable for Area Array DSS. Our method compensates the geometry rotation error and optical refraction error respectively, followed by calculating the tangent values using a high order polynomial-fitting method to reduce the random error
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