An autonomous navigation scheme based on geomagnetic and starlight for small satellites

According to the characteristics of celestial navigation system (CNS) and geomagnetic navigation system (GNS), a fully autonomous geomagnetic/celestial integrated navigation scheme (GNS/CNS) is proposed for small satellites. By using a large-view-field star sensor to obtain the starlight vectors of multi-stars, CNS can make up the shortcoming of navigation accuracy of GNS. The system model of GNS/CNS is deduced and established in detail, and UKF (unscented Kalman filter) algorithm is used to estimate and obtain high precision navigation parameters. Simulation results show that superior position, velocity and attitude accuracy of small satellites can be obtained by GNS/CNS, and the filter has stronger filtering adaptability and stability, which demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of this scheme.

► A GNS/CNS integrated navigation scheme was proposed for small satellites.
► The detailed system model of GNS/CNS was deduced and established.
► UKF algorithm was used to estimate and obtain high precision navigation parameters.
► Simulations indicate the navigation scheme is very suitable for small satellites.