초록 ▼

An attitude determination and alignment method and system use electro-optical sensors and global navigation satellites to determine attitude knowledge for a spacecraft, satellite, or a high-altitude aircraft. An on-board inertial navigation system uses global navigation satellite system equipment an

An attitude determination and alignment method and system use electro-optical sensors and global navigation satellites to determine attitude knowledge for a spacecraft, satellite, or a high-altitude aircraft. An on-board inertial navigation system uses global navigation satellite system equipment and an attitude determination system uses an electro-optical sensor. The electro-optical sensor view the navigation satellites as surrogate stellar reference sources. The electro-optical sensor replaces the function of a star sensor or tracker and associated processing required for an onboard attitude determination system. Navigation and timing information generated by the GPS/GNSS-INS is used to perform required attitude determination system functions.

대표청구항 ▼

1. A method for determining attitude information for a vehicle, comprising:receiving radio-frequency signals from a plurality of navigation satellites; applying a filter to determine an expected position and motion of the vehicle from the received radio-frequency signals; determining an expected ang

1. A method for determining attitude information for a vehicle, comprising:receiving radio-frequency signals from a plurality of navigation satellites; applying a filter to determine an expected position and motion of the vehicle from the received radio-frequency signals; determining an expected angular position and motion of one or more satellites relative to the vehicle; measuring an actual angular position and motion of said one or more satellites about two axes relative to the vehicle using an electro-optical sensor; computing a difference, along the two axes, between the expected angular position and motion of said one or more satellites and the measured, actual angular position and motion of said one or more satellites; and calculating the attitude information for the vehicle using the computed difference and the expected attitude, attitude rate, position and velocity of the vehicle.