Kalman Filtering for Spacecraft Attitude Estimation

Abstract

HIS report reviews the methods of Kalman filtering in attitude estimation and their development over the last two decades. This review is not intended to be complete but is limited to algorithms suitable for spacecraft equipped with three-axis gyros as well as attitude sensors. These are the systems to which we feel that Kalman filtering is most ap- plicable. The Kalman filter uses a dynamical model for the time development of the system and a model of the sensor measurements to obtain the most accurate estimate possible of the system state using a linear estimator based on present and past measurements. It is, thus, ideally suited to both ground-based and on-board attitude determination. However, the applicability of the Kalman filtering technique rests on the availability of an accurate dynamical model. The dynamic equations for the spacecraft attitude pose many difficulties in the filter modeling. In particular, the external torques and the distribution of momentum internally due to the use of rotating or rastering instruments lead to significant uncertainties in the modeling. For autonomous spacecraft the use of inertial reference units as a model replacement permits the circumvention of these problems. In this representation the angular velocity of the spacecraft is obtained from the gyro data. The kinematic equations are used to obtain the attitude state and this is augmented by means of additional state-vector components for the gyro biases. Thus, gyro data are not treated as observations and the gyro noise appears as state noise rather than as observation noise. It is theoretically possible that a spacecraft is three-axis stabilized with such rigidity that the time development of the system can be described accurately without gyro information, or that it is one-axis stabilized so that only a single gyro is needed to provide information on the time history of the system. The modification of the algorithms presented here in order to apply to those cases is slight. However, this is of little practical importance because a control system capable of such