OPTIMAL FUSION OF VECTOR OBSERVATIONS WITH ANGLE OR GPS PHASE DIFFERENCE OBSERVATIONS FOR THREE-AXIS ATTITUDE DETERMINATION

摘要

The general problem of determining the three-axis attitude from a combinationof vector and angle or GPS phase difference observations is examined. Twocost functions, one for vector observations and one for angle or GPS phase differenceobservations, are combined into a single maximum likelihood costfunction. The initial attitude estimate is found and then updated using the Newtonestimation sequence until it converges to the optimal estimate. The numericalexamples are presented that demonstrate effectiveness of the new approach.