Relative position and attitude estimation for satellite formation with coupled translational and rotational dynamics

This paper develops a relative position and attitude estimation approach for satellite formation. A coupled relative translational dynamics is derived to represent orbital motion of arbitrary feature points on deputy, and the relative attitude motion is formulated by a rotational dynamics for no-gyro satellite. A position sensitive diode (PSD) sensor is used to provide multiple line-of-sight (LOS) vectors from a feature point to beacons fixed on the chief. The LOS measurements are coupled with dynamical models in an extended Kalman filter (EKF) to estimate relative attitude of the deputy and relative position of the feature point. Four different scenarios are simulated to validate that the estimation accuracy is affected by the beacons configuration and measurement distance. Through comparisons, the proposed approach is approved to provide high accurate relative attitude and position estimation for the no-gyro satellite.