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Angular velocity estimation using characteristics of star trails obtained by star sensor for spacecraft

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Abstract

Many studies have been conducted about angular velocity estimation using star sensors, and fairly good performance is achieved when the spacecraft is working at low-dynamic environments. However, when the spacecraft rotates at a large angular velocity, the star image will become blurred, which makes it difficult to identify and recognize star centroids, which, in turn, reduces the accuracy of angular velocity estimation. Therefore, to solve the problem with angular velocity estimation in highly dynamic situations, this research studies a method of angular velocity estimation using blurred star images. The length and ending point coordinates of star trails obtained from these blurred star images are used for a series of processes, which includes the pre-processing of blurred star images, determination of starting and ending points, thinning and selection of star trails, and calculation of trail lengths. Simulations show that the effectiveness of the proposed method in highly dynamic situations and the angular velocity estimation errors in constant and sinusoidal variation are reduced by at least 66% and 62%, respectively, compared with those of the traditional method.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 61722301). The authors wish to express their gratitude to all members of the Science & Technology on Inertial Laboratory and the Fundamental Science on Novel Inertial Instrument & Navigation System Technology Laboratory for their valuable comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Instrumentation Science & Opto-electronics Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing, 100191, China

    Xiaolin Ning, Pingping Chen, Yueqing Huang & Jiancheng Fang

  2. Lunar Exploration and Space Program Center, China National Space Administration, Beijing, 100037, China

    Weiren Wu

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  1. Xiaolin Ning
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  2. Pingping Chen
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  3. Yueqing Huang
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  4. Weiren Wu
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  5. Jiancheng Fang
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Correspondence to Xiaolin Ning or Yueqing Huang.

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Ning, X., Chen, P., Huang, Y. et al. Angular velocity estimation using characteristics of star trails obtained by star sensor for spacecraft. Sci. China Inf. Sci. 64, 112209 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11432-019-2824-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11432-019-2824-y

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