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

The potential of angles-only navigation for autonomous orbital rendezvous is discussed. Flight algorithms for a proposed rendezvous guidance, navigation, and control system are presented. Emphasis is placed on the angles-only navigation filter development to determine relative position and attitude between a passive noncooperative target satellite and a maneuvering chaser vehicle. The navigation filter, a 32-state extended Kalman filter, 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 vehicles. The filter's performance is evaluated and tested by running a coded prototype in a closed-loop six-degree-of-freedom Monte Carlo simulation containing the various sensors; actuators; guidance, navigation, and control flight algorithms; and dynamics associated with a simple rendezvous scenario. The results include navigation errors, trajectory dispersions, attitude dispersions, and A v usage. The Monte Carlo results are then compared with linear covariance analysis results and the advantages and potential of each approach are discussed.