A Sun Sensor Based on Regular Pyramid Sensor Arrays

Abstract

Non-planar sun sensors determine solar position by existing photodiodes or solar panels without increasing the size or mass of aerospace equipment such as satellites. However, it suffers from the coarse orientation accuracy. A sun sensor that is formed by photodiodes or solar panels mounted on the lateral surfaces of regular pyramid was proposed to reduce the estimated error of the sun vector, which indirectly improve the accuracy of solar orientation determination. The orientation formulation of the sun sensor and its sun vector error were derived to evaluate the interference suppression for the sun sensor. Experimental data validates the maximum error of orientation is less than 1° in a clear sky by the sun sensor consisting of 16 solar panels, which are mounted on the lateral surfaces of a regular 16-pyramid with the output error less than ±5% and the assembly error less than ±1°.