An accurate and efficient attitude determination system is a key component for Earth-observation small satellites. However, most of the small satellites operate without redundant attitude sensors due to the satellite’s small form factor and are therefore at a significant risk of mission failure. In this research, we propose a visual-inertial attitude propagation approach for Earth-observation small satellites. The proposed approach integrates vision-based and inertial attitude estimation methods in an unscented Kalman filter (UKF) framework. The vision-based method propagates attitude in three degrees of freedom from sequentially captured images based on Earth-observation geometrical constraints and total shift correction method. For validation of the vision-based method’s performance, we used raw imagery data of High Definition Earth Viewing (HDEV) payload of the International Space Station (ISS). The performance of the visual-inertial approach is assessed through the realistic Earth-surface scene simulations and results are compared with ground truth data.


    Access

    Download


    Export, share and cite



    Title :

    A Visual-Inertial attitude propagation for resource constrained small satellites


    Contributors:


    Publication date :

    2019



    Type of media :

    Article (Journal)


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    Unknown




    A Constrained Attitude Control Module for Small Satellites

    Kjellberg, H. / Lightsey, G. / Utah State University; American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics | British Library Conference Proceedings | 2012


    Design of a Stellar Gyroscope for visual attitude propagation for small satellites

    Rawashdeh, Samir A. / Danhauer, William C. / Lumpp, James E. | IEEE | 2012



    Image-based attitude propagation for small satellites using RANSAC

    Rawashdeh, Samir A. / Lumpp, James E. | IEEE | 2014


    AIAA-2001-4690 Stellar/Inertial (EBCCD/MEMS) Attitude Measurement & Control of Small Satellites

    Johnson, W. / Phillips, R. / American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics | British Library Conference Proceedings | 2001