Jitter reduction of a reaction wheel by management of angular momentum using magnetic torquers in nano- and micro-satellites

Nowadays, nano- and micro-satellites, which are smaller than conventional large satellites, provide access to space to many satellite developers, and they are attracting interest as an application of space development because development is possible over shorter time period at a lower cost. In most of these nano- and micro-satellite missions, the satellites generally must meet strict attitude requirements for obtaining scientific data under strict constraints of power consumption, space, and weight. In many satellite missions, the jitter of a reaction wheel degrades the performance of the mission detectors and attitude sensors; therefore, jitter should be controlled or isolated to reduce its effect on sensor devices. In conventional standard-sized satellites, tip-tilt mirrors (TTMs) and isolators are used for controlling or isolating the vibrations from reaction wheels; however, it is difficult to use these devices for nano- and micro-satellite missions under the strict power, space, and mass constraints. In this research, the jitter of reaction wheels is reduced by using accurate sensors, small reaction wheels, and slow rotation frequency reaction wheel instead of TTMs and isolators. The objective of a reaction wheel in many satellite missions is the management of the satellite’s angular momentum, which increases because of attitude disturbances. If the magnitude of the disturbance is reduced in orbit or on the ground, the magnitude of the angular momentum that the reaction wheels gain from attitude disturbances in orbit becomes smaller; therefore, satellites can stabilize their attitude using only smaller reaction wheels or slow rotation speed, which cause relatively smaller vibration. In nano- and micro-satellite missions, the dominant attitude disturbance is a magnetic torque, which can be cancelled by using magnetic actuators. With the magnetic compensation, the satellite reduces the angular momentum that the reaction wheels gain, and therefore, satellites do not require large reaction wheels and higher rotation speed, which cause jitter. As a result, the satellite can reduce the effect of jitter without using conventional isolators and TTMs. Hence, the satellites can achieve precise attitude control under low power, space, and mass constraints using this proposed method. Through the example of an astronomical observation mission using nano- and micro-satellites, it is demonstrated that the jitter reduction using small reaction wheels is feasible in nano- and micro-satellites.     

Onboard orbit determination using GPS observations based on the unscented Kalman filter

Spaceborne GPS receivers are used for real-time navigation by most low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites. In general, the position and velocity accuracy of GPS navigation solutions without a dynamic filter are 25 m (1σ) and 0.5 m/s (1σ), respectively. However, GPS navigation solutions, which consist of position, velocity, and GPS receiver clock bias, have many abnormal excursions from the normal error range for space operation. These excursions lessen the accuracy of attitude control and onboard time synchronization. In this research, a new onboard orbit determination algorithm designed with the unscented Kalman filter (UKF) was developed to improve the performance. Because the UKF is able to obtain the posterior mean and covariance accurately by using the second-order Taylor series expansion through the sampled sigma points that are propagated by using the true nonlinear system, its performance can be better than that of the extended Kalman filter (EKF), which uses the linearized state transition matrix to predict the covariance. The dynamic models for orbit propagation applied perturbations due to the 40 × 40 geo-potential, the gravity of the Sun and Moon, solar radiation pressure, and atmospheric drag. The 7(8)th-order Runge–Kutta numerical integration was applied for orbit propagation. Two types of observations, navigation solutions and C/A code pseudorange, can be used at the user’s discretion. The performances of the onboard orbit determination were verified using real GPS data of the CHAMP and KOMPSAT-2 satellites. The results of the orbit determination were compared with the precision orbit ephemeris (POE) of the CHAMP and KOMPSAT-2 satellites.     

高姿态稳定度敏捷卫星的VSCMGs操纵律研究

  研究采用变速控制力矩陀螺群（VSCMGs）作为姿态控制执行机构的高姿态稳定度敏捷卫星的操纵律设计问题。将VSCMG分为控制力矩陀螺(CMG)和动量轮(MW)两种工作模式,针对每种工作模式进行奇异性分析,并给出逃避奇异的方法。为了获得较好的控制效果,还研究了VSCMG群转子转速向标称转速平衡的方法以及通过调整转子轴构型使转子转速快速返回到标称值的方法。最后通过对算例进行仿真,验证了所设计的操纵律的有效性。     

Central difference predictive filter for attitude determination with low precision sensors and model errors

Attitude determination is one of the key technologies for Attitude Determination and Control System (ADCS) of a satellite. However, serious model errors may exist which will affect the estimation accuracy of ACDS, especially for a small satellite with low precision sensors. In this paper, a central difference predictive filter (CDPF) is proposed for attitude determination of small satellites with model errors and low precision sensors. The new filter is proposed by introducing the Stirling’s polynomial interpolation formula to extend the traditional predictive filter (PF). It is shown that the proposed filter has higher accuracy for the estimation of system states than the traditional PF. It is known that the unscented Kalman filter (UKF) has also been used in the ADCS of small satellites with low precision sensors. In order to evaluate the performance of the proposed filter, the UKF is also employed to compare it with the CDPF. Numerical simulations show that the proposed CDPF is more effective and robust in dealing with model errors and low precision sensors compared with the UKF or traditional PF.     

导航卫星的地面站定轨算法

导航星座轨道的长期保持是星座导航系统运营管理的重要组成部分,而现有的导航卫星地面定轨算法又存在精度不高或计算量大不适合工程应用的问题。为此,研究了单向、被动测量模式的导航卫星地面定轨算法。基于单向伪距观测,将导航卫星钟差参数作为状态量,推导了滤波算法的状态方程、测量方程,并最终建立了滤波器模型。以不同轨道面的4颗GPS导航卫星为例进行了2天的仿真试验,考虑卫星的可见性仿真中加入了测量中断,并设计在测量恢复后重启滤波算法。仿真结果表明,4颗卫星的轨道位置估计精度可以达到米级,钟差随机偏差的估计精度可以达到纳秒级,并且在滤波中断后重启滤波器,仍然可以达到此估计精度,表明此定轨算法具有收敛性和稳定性。     

改善反作用轮低速性能的补偿观测器方法

基于Ｄａｈｌ摩擦模型,给出了用于卫星姿态三轴稳定控制的反作用轮低速动力学方程,就反作用轮转速过零对卫星姿态产生的扰动现象进行了分析,提出了一种利用非线性观测器估计摩擦力矩,并予以补偿的补偿观测器方法。仿真结果表明,该方法改善了反作用轮低速性能,提高了卫星姿态控制的指向精度和稳定度。     

一种多步的基于切换星间测量的多星自主导航算法

针对基于星间测量的多星自主导航问题,从载荷优化和节约成本考虑,提出了一种单套敏感器切换测量的导航方案。建立了该导航方案下的系统状态空间模型,并基于扩展卡尔曼滤波方程给出了导航估计算法。基于多步卡尔曼滤波方法,将集中的滤波算法解耦为多个平行的子滤波器,使计算量降低到原算法的50%以下,并且在切换测量的导航方案下,部分解耦出的子滤波器可以只预测不更新,能够进一步地降低计算负担。给出了多步滤波算法的推导过程,证明了其与标准卡尔曼滤波的数学等价性,故算法的估计性能及计算结果与标准卡尔曼滤波一致,但计算速度有明显提升。最后,通过具体算例给出了算法的仿真验证。     

GEO长寿命卫星热管在轨等温性能分析

热管是GEO长寿命卫星热控设计大量使用的重要传热元件，其在轨等温传热性能是影响卫星安全可靠工作的关键因素。针对中国在轨长期稳定运行的GEO长寿命卫星热管，基于热管在轨温度遥测数据，采用数理统计方法分析热管在轨等温性能随时间的实际变化规律，分析表明：GEO长寿命卫星热管在轨等温性能稳定性良好，等温性受热管自身温度水平影响较大，年周期内呈现季节性变化，全寿命周期内随飞行时间推移呈现性能衰减下降趋势，寿命末期等温性优于1.6℃，并从热管设计、热负荷大小与分布、使用环境等方面进行等温性改进分析及应用建议。     

A multi-satellite co-tracking method for a single space target based on adaptive distributed spherical simplex information-weighted consensus filter

A multi-satellite co-tracking method for a single non-cooperative target is proposed to extend the arc of observation as well as to improve the accuracy of tracking. Firstly, the motion of the target is considered to be affected by J2 perturbation, and the model of multi-satellite co-tracking a single space target is designed with only measured angles. Then, a multi-satellite co-tracking method for a single space target based on an adaptive distributed spherical simplex information-weighted consensus filter (ADSSICF) is proposed. The spherical simplex is used to reduce the computational cost of the information filter, and to improve the efficiency of tracking. The angle-only measurement equation is linearized by the statistical linear regression method, and linearization errors are compensated for by updating measurement noise. By designing an adaptive consensus algorithm, only a small number of iterations are needed to achieve network consensus, to improve the convergence speed of the consensus algorithm, and prove the stability of ADSSICF. Finally, a simulation of four low-orbit satellites tracking a single space target is established. The focus of this paper is on the real-time performance and tracking accuracy of the multi-satellite co-tracking a single space target with angle-only based on ADSSICF. The performance of ADSSICF is verified from three indicators: the consensus and convergence of algorithm, the accuracy of state estimation.     

基于卡尔曼滤波和ABS控制输入的车速估计

在现有的轮速估计算法基础上,研究了一种基于参数自适应卡尔曼滤波和ABS(Anti-lock Braking System)控制输入的车速估计算法.该算法首先以四轮轮速为输入,利用ABS控制状态信息估计车辆的制动减速度,然后综合减速度和轮速信息分别估计左、右侧的参考车速.使用自适应卡尔曼滤波针对不同的滑移状况更新协方差矩阵,并采用真实的ABS制动试验数据检验所提出的算法,结果表明:该算法在各种路面条件下都能估计得到合理的参考车速.      

Doppler utilised Kalman estimation (DUKE) of ionospheric delay for satellite navigation

The ionospheric delay experienced by the satellite navigation signals depends upon the Total Electron Content (TEC) and needs to be corrected. While the single frequency receivers always use parametric models to correct this delay, dual frequency receivers, when suffers a loss of lock of one of its signal, also has to resort to these models. Here, an alternative method, based on Doppler, surrogated by range rate variation, has been attempted to estimate the ionospheric delay using a Kalman filter. GPS data have been used for all visible satellites over four days selected around the equinox and solstice with nominal geomagnetic conditions and estimations done in continuous and calibrated modes. Results of continuous estimation, obtained for a mid latitude station, showed moderate accuracy while it was significantly better for the calibrated mode with no seasonal dependence. Estimations done for station within the extent of equatorial anomaly, has not only resulted in relative deterioration in performance, but also shown seasonal dependence. Compared with estimates of Klobuchar model, the Calibrated estimation showed superior performance, conspicuously in the mid latitude station. However, for the continuous mode, performance was at par with the model at higher latitudes but inferior to it in regions within the extent of the equatorial anomaly.     

Pose measurement and motion estimation of non-cooperative satellite based on spatial circle feature

Malfunctioned satellites have seriously threatened orbital safety, and the capture of these satellites is of great significance. The pose measurement and the motion estimation of the tumbling satellite is the premise of capture. In this paper, the docking ring of the satellite is identified, which is equivalent to a spatial circle. Combined with the nozzle feature, the pose duality of the spatial circle can be eliminated. And the measurement accuracy is improved by minimizing the reprojection error of the docking ring and the nozzle. Due to the symmetry of the docking ring, the measured pose has only five degrees of freedom, losing the degree of freedom of rotation around the normal vector. In the motion estimation algorithm, the observability of the tumbling motion is firstly analyzed, then an error-state Kalman filter with inertia ratio constraints is designed. To improve the convergence speed and stability of the filter, a rough estimation algorithm of filter initial value based on linear term extraction and particle swarm optimization is proposed. The effectiveness of the pose measurement and motion estimation method is verified by simulations.     

基于宽带宽测量的姿态确定方法

针对由飞轮等星上高速旋转部件所引起的高频姿态和指向抖动,提出一种基于磁流体动力学特性的角位移敏感器用于星上高精度宽带宽的微振动测量,以弥补常规姿态测量系统测量频带低,动态范围有限的缺点.介绍以扩展姿态确定带宽为基础的高精度姿态确定方法.给出了以陀螺、星敏及ADS测量信息为基础的宽带宽的姿态确定方法及系统的模型,采用了卡尔曼滤波来确定卫星姿态.仿真分析结果表明存在高频姿态抖动的情况下,宽带宽的姿态确定方法的估计精度优于传统的姿态确定方法,由此验证了宽带宽的姿态确定方法的有效性及精确性.     

Guidepost-based autonomous orbit determination method for GEO satellite

Guidepost-based navigation system is a novel autonomous orbit determination method for the GEO satellite. The system is achieved by using the camera imaging function to obtain the guidepost images and the GNSS signal receiver to obtain the pseudoranges between the GEO and the navigation satellites. Due to the high altitude of GEO satellite and the time-varying sunlight condition in the space environment, it may be difficult to obtain object image points and the distance measurements of GNSS because of the weak visibility of the guideposts. To deal with the problem, a novel integrated orbit determination system is presented. The Earth landmarks, the in-orbit spacecraft and GNSS navigation satellites whose line-of-sights and the distance can be easily obtained are used at the same time as information for the GEO satellite navigation based on the observability conditions analysis. The observability of the GEO satellite navigation system is analyzed through the physical observability, the mathematical observability and the engineering observability through the observing geometry, the rank of observability matrix and the Cramer-Rao lower bound (CRLB) respectively. Besides, the maximum correntropy unscented Kalman filter (MCUKF) algorithm is applied to improve the estimation stability of the system in the presence of non-Gaussian noises. The simulation indicates the feasibility of the proposed scheme.     

火星探测器捕获段自适应卡尔曼滤波方法

天文导航是一种广泛应用于深空探测任务中的节能、高效的导航方式。基于轨道动力学模型和星光角距的卡尔曼滤波方法已经被成功应用在天文导航系统中。在捕获段由于探测器所处动力学环境复杂,未建模的加速度误差,星历误差等都会造成过程噪声统计特性不完全。针对以上问题,提出一种根据新息和残差序列的变化趋势来调节过程噪声协方差阵的自适应平方根容积卡尔曼的方法（AQSCKF）。该方法先分别利用新息和残差计算调节因子,然后判断新息和残差的变化趋势,当新息和残差的变化趋势一致时,取二者调节因子的均值作为过程噪声方差阵的调节因子,对其进行调节。此外,本文还将该方法与传统的只利用新息或残差在线调节协方差阵的平方根容积卡尔曼滤波（SCKF）方法进行对比,仿真结果表明,在解决由于过程噪声统计特性不能完全已知的问题上,AQSCKF算法不仅能显著提高导航精度,并且具有很好的稳定性。     

Impact of the orbital eccentricity on the attitude performance before and after the deorbiting phase for Alsat-1

Due to the presence of periodic forcing terms in the gravity gradient torque, orbit eccentricity may produce large response for the roll, yaw and pitch angles. This paper investigates the influence of the orbit eccentricity on the performance of the attitude determination and control subsystem (ADCS) pointing of passive Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites stabilized by a gravity gradient boom or having long appendages before and after the deorbiting operation. The contribution of this work is twofold. First, the satellite attitude dynamics and kinematics are modeled by introducing the orbit eccentricity in the equations of motion of a LEO satellite in order to provide the best scenario in which satellite operators can keep the nominal functionality of LEO satellites with a gravity gradient boom after the deorbiting operation. Second, a Quaternion-based Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) is analyzed when the orbit eccentricity is considered in order to determine the influence of this disturbance on the convergence and stability of the filter. The simulations in this work are based on the true parameters of Alsat-1 which is a typical LEO satellite stabilized by a gravity gradient boom. The results show that the orbit eccentricity has a big influence on the pointing system accuracy causing micro-vibrations that affect the geocentric pointing particularly after the deorbiting phase. In this case, satellites have no orbital correction option. The Quaternion-based Extended Kalman Filter analyzed in this paper, achieved satisfactory results for eccentricity values less than 0.4 with respect to pointing system accuracy. However, singularities were observed for eccentricity values greater than 0.4.     

卫星不足情况下低成本MEMS-INS/GPS伪松组合导航

为了解决GPS可观测卫星不足情况下低成本微电子机械-惯性导航系统/全球定位系统（MEMS-INS/GPS）组合导航精度维持问题,提出基于灰色模型和自适应卡尔曼滤波的MEMS-INS/GPS伪松组合导航方法。以MEMS-INS/GPS松组合导航模式为框架,建立了伪松组合导航系统的状态空间模型。基于MEMS-INS/GPS的历史观测数据,使用灰色模型对MEMSINS/GPS观测差值进行预测,称为系统伪观测量。当GPS可观测卫星充分时,使用噪声自适应估计卡尔曼滤波对MEMS-INS/GPS进行松组合导航;当GPS可观测卫星不足时,使用噪声自适应估计卡尔曼滤波依据系统伪观测量,将MEMS-INS/GPS进行伪松组合导航。以车载低成本MEMSINS/GPS组合导航系统为例进行仿真和实验验证,结果表明：当GPS可观测卫星不足时,传统的MEMS-INS/GPS松组合导航精度迅速下降并发散,而MEMS-INS/GPS伪松组合导航精度与GPS正常工作时的导航精度相差不大,维持了较高精度的导航状态。     

MEO导航卫星在轨放气产生的干扰力矩研究

摘要： 针对多颗MEO导航卫星太阳翼展开后产生比较明显的干扰力矩,对卫星稳定控制产生了一定影响的现象,本文根据动力学模型、姿态、角速度和飞轮转速变化,给出了干扰力矩计算方法,并结合多颗卫星在轨遥测数据进行计算,得出放气期间产生的干扰力矩.通过使用此干扰力矩进行仿真得出,卫星模拟器结果和在轨表现基本一致.此研究有助于优化卫星飞控流程,并指导卫星放气孔设计.     

测量带有常值偏差时卫星自主定轨系统可观性分析

考虑测量带有常值偏差时卫星自主定轨系统的状态观测和常值偏差估计问题,将观测常值偏差扩增为状态后进行卡尔曼滤波是解决这一问题的一个途径。为使卡尔曼滤波稳定,就必须分析系统的随机可观测性。文章利用线性时变系统的可观性理论对测量带有常值偏差时卫星自主定轨系统的可观性进行了分析,数值仿真结果显示了所得理论的正确性。     

Low-cost precise measurement of oscillator frequency instability based on GNSS carrier observation

Global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) receivers can be used in time and frequency metrology by exploiting stable GNSS time scales. This paper proposes a low-cost method for precise measurement of oscillator frequency instability using a single-frequency software GNSS receiver. The only required hardware is a common radio frequency (RF) data collection device driven by the oscillator under test (OUT). The receiver solves the oscillator frequency error in high time resolution using the carrier Doppler observation and the broadcast ephemeris from one of the available satellites employing the onboard reference atomic frequency standard that is more stable than the OUT. Considering the non-stable and non-Gaussian properties of the frequency error measurement, an unbiased finite impulse response (FIR) filter is employed to obtain robust estimation and filter out measurement noise. The effects of different filter orders and convolution lengths are further discussed. The frequency error of an oven controlled oscillator (OCXO) is measured using live Beidou-2/Compass signals. The results are compared with the synchronous measurement using a specialized phase comparator with the standard coordinated universal time (UTC) signal from the master clock H226 in the national time service center (NTSC) of China as its reference. The Allan deviation (ADEV) estimates using the two methods have a 99.9% correlation coefficient and a 0.6% mean relative difference over 1–1000 s intervals. The experiment demonstrates the effectiveness and high precision of the software receiver method.