Performance Evaluation of Suboptimal Filters

The use of a Kalman filter in an applications problem requires a detailed model of both the system dynamics and the measurement dynamics. The model for many problems may be extremely large in dimensionality. However, in many instances one has a limited computer capability and, thus, must purposely introduce modeling errors into the filter in order to gain a computational advantage. However, as is well known, this may lead to the phenomenon of filter divergence. This paper considers the development of equations which allow one to evaluate a filter of reduced state. The equations are based upon using covariance analysis techniques in order to determine the true root-mean-square estimation error. These equations are computationally more advantageous than others appearing in the literature.     

Confluence of navigation, communication, and control in distributedspacecraft systems

This research details the development of technologies and methodologies that enable distributed spacecraft systems by supporting integrated navigation, communication, and control. Operating at the confluence of these critical functions produces capabilities needed to realize the promise of distributed spacecraft systems, including improved performance and robustness relative to monolithic space systems. Navigation supports science data association and data alignment for distributed aperture sensing, multipoint observation, and co-observation of target regions. Communication enables autonomous distributed science data processing and information exchange among space assets. Both navigation and communication provide essential input to control methods for coordinating distributed autonomous assets at the interspacecraft system level and the intraspacecraft affector subsystem level. A technology solution to implement these capabilities, the Crosslink Transceiver, is also described. The Crosslink Transceiver provides navigation and communication capability that can be integrated into a developing autonomous command and control methodology for distributed spacecraft systems. A small satellite implementation of the Crosslink Transceiver design is detailed and its ability to support broad distributed spacecraft mission classes is described     

Isolating errors in models of complex systems

One of the steps in creating a mathematical model of a system is to test the model after it has been fully specified, to see whether it is performing adequately. Often, it is found that the model is not performing acceptably (e.g. the model is not giving accurate predictions of the performance of the actual system). The same lack of fidelity can also be observed in established models that had been performing well, indicating a change in the actual system. At this point, it is necessary to diagnose where the problem in the model lies; a process called error isolation. An error isolation technique for detecting the misspecified parameter (or set of parameters) is described. This technique is especially designed for use on state-space models of large-scale systems. The authors report on an example of an application of the methodology to localizing errors in the model of an inertial navigation system