Orbit Estimation for Spacecraft Based on Intermittent Measurements: An Event-Triggered UKF Approach

• Published in: IEEE transactions on aerospace and electronic systems Vol. 58; no. 1; pp. 304 - 317
• Main Authors: Hou, Lijun, Zou, Hengguang, Zheng, Kaikai, Zhang, Lei, Zhou, Na, Ren, Junqiang, Shi, Dawei
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01.02.2022; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Aerodynamics; Algorithms; Estimation; Event-triggered state estimation; Extraterrestrial measurements; Ground stations; Kalman filters; Noise measurement; Orbital mechanics; Orbits; Perturbation; sensor fusion; Space vehicles; Spacecraft; spacecraft orbit estimation; Spacecraft orbits; State estimation; unscented Kalman filter (UKF)
• ISSN: 0018-9251; 1557-9603
• DOI: 10.1109/TAES.2021.3103581

This article addresses a problem of spacecraft orbit estimation with measurement transmission restrictions through an event-triggered state estimation approach. Specifically, we consider the scenario that the ground station communicates with the spacecraft through multiple channels and each channel decides whether or not to transmit the measurements to the spacecraft based on separate deterministic event-triggering conditions. Considering J_2 perturbations, an event-triggered unscented Kalman filter-based state estimation algorithm is designed on the basis of a model of orbit dynamics and a measurement model of the ground station. The performance of the estimator is evaluated based on real-time two-line element data. The obtained results indicate that the proposed algorithm can achieve satisfactory estimation performance at reduced measurement transmission rates.