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Robust unscented Kalman filter for nanosat attitude estimation

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  • Control Theory and Applications
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Abstract

A robust unscented Kalman filter based on a multiplicative quaternion-error approach is proposed for nanosat estimation in the presence of measurement faults. The global attitude parameterization is given by a quaternion, while the local attitude error is defined using a generalized three-dimensional attitude representation. The proposed algorithm uses a statistical function including measurement residuals to detect measurement faults and then uses an adaptation scheme based on multiple measurement scale factor for filter robustness against faulty measurements. The proposed algorithm is demonstrated for the attitude estimation of a nanosat with an on-board three-axis magnetometer and rate-integrating gyros in the presence of measurement faults as well as satellite orbit errors. To compare the estimation performance of the proposed algorithm, the robust unscented Kalman filter with single measurement noise scale factor, the standard extended Kalman filter and the unscented Kalman filter are also implemented under the same simulation conditions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth and Space Science and Engineering, York University, Toronto, M3J 1P3, Canada

    Daero Lee, George Vukovich & Regina Lee

Authors
  1. Daero Lee
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  2. George Vukovich
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  3. Regina Lee
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Daero Lee.

Additional information

Recommended by Associate Editor Yang Tang under the direction of Editor Hamid Reza Karimi.

Daero Lee is a postdoctoral research fellow in the department of Earth and Space Science and Engineering at York University, Toronto, Ontario Canada. He received the B.A. and M.S. in aerospace engineering from Konkuk University, Seoul, Korea, in 1999 and 2001, respectively. He received another M.S. in aerospace engineering from Auburn University in 2006. He received the Ph.D. in aerospace engineering from Missouri University of Science and Technology in 2009. His research interests are spacecraft dynamics, control and navigation for (asteroid explorations, spacecraft formation flying, and rendezvous and docking, cubetsat mission), geometric/algebraic methods applied to nonlinear systems, and GNSS/INS integration.

George Vukovich Following his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto in Aerospace and Control Systems Dr Vukovich was employed at Dynacon Enterprises LTD in spacecraft control system design. He then worked as a research engineer for both Northrop Corp and Honeywell Inc, in navigation and guidance systems, and then went on to be a research scientist at the Canadian Space Agency in St Hubert Quebec. In 1996 he became Director of Spacecraft Engineering at the CSA, a position he held until 2010, becoming a scientist once again. In 2012 he joined the Lassonde School of Engineering at York University in Toronto where his current research interests are spacecraft control systems, solar and electric sail spacecraft, robotics, and smart structures.

Regina Lee is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Earth and Space Science and Engineering at York University, Toronto, Canada where she has been since 2007. Prof. Lee received a B.A.Sc. (Engineering Science) in 1994 and M.A.Sc in 1995 from the University of Toronto. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Toronto in 2000. From 2000 to 2007 she worked at Dynacon Inc. as a (NSERC) industry post-doctoral fellow, and later as a Research Scientist. Prof. Lee’s research interests center on nanosatellite technology development. It has been a focus of Prof. Lee’s research at York to develop a series of space technologies that will lead to scientific nanosatellite missions in the near future. Currently, she is investigating several areas including micro-spectrometer design, micro-propulsion system, MEMS based attitude sensors and actuators and algorithms to incorporate their low-grade characteristics; and examination of field-programmable gate array (FPGA)- based subsystem development.

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Lee, D., Vukovich, G. & Lee, R. Robust unscented Kalman filter for nanosat attitude estimation. Int. J. Control Autom. Syst. 15, 2161–2173 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12555-016-0498-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12555-016-0498-4

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