Inexpensive CubeSat attitude estimation using COTS components and Unscented Kalman Filtering

Jesper Abildgaard Larsen, Kasper Vinther

Research output: Contribution to book/anthology/report/conference proceedingArticle in proceedingResearchpeer-review

5 Citations (Scopus)
4 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

This paper describes a quaternion implementation of an Unscented Kalman Filter for attitude estimation on CubeSats using measurements of a sun vector, a magnetic field vector and angular velocity. Using unit quaternions provides a singularity free attitude parameterization. However, the unity constraint requires a redesign of the Unscented Kalman Filter. Therefore, a quaternion error state is introduced. Emphasis has been put in making the implementation accessible to other CubeSat by using realistic models of COTS components used for attitude sensing and simulations have shown that the extra computational cost of estimating bias in measurements is worthwhile. The simulations where performed in a simulation environment for the CubeSat AAUSAT3, where robustness has been an important factor during tuning of the attitude estimators. The results indicate that it is possible to achieve acceptable CubeSat attitude estimation, even during eclipse, on a limited budget and using COTS components, without the need of expensive high precision sensor setups
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings of 5th International Conference on Recent Advances in Space Technologies (RAST), 2011
Number of pages6
Place of PublicationTyrkiet
PublisherIEEE Press
Publication date29 Jul 2011
Pages341-346
ISBN (Print)978-1-4244-9617-4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 29 Jul 2011
Event 5th International Conference on Recent Advances in Space Technologies (RAST 2011) - Istanbul, Turkey
Duration: 9 Jun 201111 Jun 2011

Conference

Conference 5th International Conference on Recent Advances in Space Technologies (RAST 2011)
Country/TerritoryTurkey
CityIstanbul
Period09/06/201111/06/2011

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