Cubature Kalman filtering for relative spacecraft attitude and position estimation

• A novel navigation approach based on cubature Kalman filter is derived.
• The approach is used to estimate relative attitude/position between two spacecrafts.
• The assumption that the chief׳s body frame coincides with its LVLH frame is removed.
• The CKF provides more accurate estimates than the extended Kalman filter.

A novel relative spacecraft attitude and position estimation approach based on cubature Kalman filter is derived. The integrated sensor suit comprises the gyro sensors on each spacecraft and a vision-based navigation system on the deputy spacecraft. In the traditional algorithm, an assumption that the chief׳s body frame coincides with its Local Vertical Local Horizontal (LVLH) frame is made to construct the line-of-sight observations for convenience. To solve this problem, two relative quaternions that map the chief׳s LVLH frame to the deputy and chief body frames are involved. The general relative equations of motion for eccentric orbits are used to describe the positional dynamics. The implementation equations for the cubature Kalman filter are derived. Simulation results indicate that the proposed filter provides more accurate estimates of relative attitude and position over than the extended Kalman filter.