Inter-Spacecraft Rapid Transfer Alignment Based on Attitude Plus Angular Rate Matching Using Q-Learning Kalman Filter

This study focuses on the transfer alignment issue between a master spacecraft and a slave spacecraft for the scenario in which the slave spacecraft is mounted on the master satellite before release and should be ready to depart and perform its space mission independently. The challenge of the trans...

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Main Authors: Kai Xiong, Peng Zhou, Xiangyu Huang
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2025-04-01
Series:Sensors
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/25/9/2774
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author Kai Xiong
Peng Zhou
Xiangyu Huang
author_facet Kai Xiong
Peng Zhou
Xiangyu Huang
author_sort Kai Xiong
collection DOAJ
description This study focuses on the transfer alignment issue between a master spacecraft and a slave spacecraft for the scenario in which the slave spacecraft is mounted on the master satellite before release and should be ready to depart and perform its space mission independently. The challenge of the transfer alignment is to estimate the attitude and calibration parameters of the gyroscope unit (GU) on the slave spacecraft based on the attitude determination system (ADS) of the master spacecraft. To improve the accuracy and rapidity of the transfer alignment, a novel attitude plus angular rate matching scheme is presented using fused sensor information on the master spacecraft. Accordingly, a fifteen-dimensional state-space model is derived to estimate the spacecraft attitude, the GU bias, scale factor error and misalignment simultaneously. A Q-learning Kalman filter (QKF) is designed to fine tune the process noise covariance matrix related to the calibration parameters, which benefits the state estimation performance. The simulation results show that the presented attitude plus angular rate matching scheme performs better than the traditional attitude matching scheme, and the QKF outperforms the standard Kalman filter (KF) and the adaptive Kalman filter (AKF).
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issn 1424-8220
language English
publishDate 2025-04-01
publisher MDPI AG
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spelling doaj-art-e7adffb86f944542a68f951edf3a18682025-08-20T02:31:20ZengMDPI AGSensors1424-82202025-04-01259277410.3390/s25092774Inter-Spacecraft Rapid Transfer Alignment Based on Attitude Plus Angular Rate Matching Using Q-Learning Kalman FilterKai Xiong0Peng Zhou1Xiangyu Huang2Science and Technology on Space Intelligent Control Laboratory, Beijing Institute of Control Engineering, Beijing 100190, ChinaScience and Technology on Space Intelligent Control Laboratory, Beijing Institute of Control Engineering, Beijing 100190, ChinaScience and Technology on Space Intelligent Control Laboratory, Beijing Institute of Control Engineering, Beijing 100190, ChinaThis study focuses on the transfer alignment issue between a master spacecraft and a slave spacecraft for the scenario in which the slave spacecraft is mounted on the master satellite before release and should be ready to depart and perform its space mission independently. The challenge of the transfer alignment is to estimate the attitude and calibration parameters of the gyroscope unit (GU) on the slave spacecraft based on the attitude determination system (ADS) of the master spacecraft. To improve the accuracy and rapidity of the transfer alignment, a novel attitude plus angular rate matching scheme is presented using fused sensor information on the master spacecraft. Accordingly, a fifteen-dimensional state-space model is derived to estimate the spacecraft attitude, the GU bias, scale factor error and misalignment simultaneously. A Q-learning Kalman filter (QKF) is designed to fine tune the process noise covariance matrix related to the calibration parameters, which benefits the state estimation performance. The simulation results show that the presented attitude plus angular rate matching scheme performs better than the traditional attitude matching scheme, and the QKF outperforms the standard Kalman filter (KF) and the adaptive Kalman filter (AKF).https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/25/9/2774spacecraftattitude determinationtransfer alignmentQ-learningKalman filter
spellingShingle Kai Xiong
Peng Zhou
Xiangyu Huang
Inter-Spacecraft Rapid Transfer Alignment Based on Attitude Plus Angular Rate Matching Using Q-Learning Kalman Filter
Sensors
spacecraft
attitude determination
transfer alignment
Q-learning
Kalman filter
title Inter-Spacecraft Rapid Transfer Alignment Based on Attitude Plus Angular Rate Matching Using Q-Learning Kalman Filter
title_full Inter-Spacecraft Rapid Transfer Alignment Based on Attitude Plus Angular Rate Matching Using Q-Learning Kalman Filter
title_fullStr Inter-Spacecraft Rapid Transfer Alignment Based on Attitude Plus Angular Rate Matching Using Q-Learning Kalman Filter
title_full_unstemmed Inter-Spacecraft Rapid Transfer Alignment Based on Attitude Plus Angular Rate Matching Using Q-Learning Kalman Filter
title_short Inter-Spacecraft Rapid Transfer Alignment Based on Attitude Plus Angular Rate Matching Using Q-Learning Kalman Filter
title_sort inter spacecraft rapid transfer alignment based on attitude plus angular rate matching using q learning kalman filter
topic spacecraft
attitude determination
transfer alignment
Q-learning
Kalman filter
url https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/25/9/2774
work_keys_str_mv AT kaixiong interspacecraftrapidtransferalignmentbasedonattitudeplusangularratematchingusingqlearningkalmanfilter
AT pengzhou interspacecraftrapidtransferalignmentbasedonattitudeplusangularratematchingusingqlearningkalmanfilter
AT xiangyuhuang interspacecraftrapidtransferalignmentbasedonattitudeplusangularratematchingusingqlearningkalmanfilter