Relative Angles-Only Navigation and Pose Estimation For Autonomous Orbital Rendezvous

Abstract

This paper explores the potential of using angles-only navigation to perform various autonomous orbital rendezvous and close proximity operations. A 32-state extended Kalman filter is developed that processes angular measurements from an optical navigation camera along with gyro and star tracker data to estimate the inertial position, velocity, attitude, and angular rates of both a target and chaser vehicle. The target satellite is assumed to be passive while the chaser may perform a variety of autonomous rendezvous and close proximity maneuvers. The navigation filter’s performance is evaluated and tested by running a coded prototype in a closed loop 6 degree-of-freedom simulation tool containing the various sensors, actuators, GN&C flight algorithms, and dynamics associated with a simple rendezvous scenario. The analysis performed for this study uses standard Monte-Carlo techniques. These results not only include the navigation errors associated with implementing an angles-only navigation scheme, but they also reveal the dispersions from the nominal trajectory associated with this particular technique in a closed-loop GN&C setting. The rendezvous scenario duplicates a similar close proximity scenario analyzed using linear covariance analysis. Both methods are compared to add validity to the results and highlight the advantages and potential of each approach for autonomous orbital rendezvous and close proximity operation analysis.