Autonomous navigation for constellation based on inter-satellite ranging and directions

Abstract

This paper mainly studies the autonomous navigation method for the constellation. Based on the measurements of inter-satellite ranging and direction, a federated filter algorithm is presented. Then, to redue the error caused by the constellation rotation, a camera is applied in observations. Ultimately, the feasibility of reducing the number of cameras observations is discussed. The simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the federated filter for autonomous navigation. Meanwhile, it has been verified that the error induced by the constellation rotation can be effectively reduced by only one camera.