SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR REAL TIME DETERMINATION OF 3 AXIS ORIENTATION FROM REFERENCE VECTORS WITH VECTOR MISALIGNMENT ESTIMATION

摘要

A computer implemented method, program and system for determining the attitude of a vehicle from two sets of local frame and body frame reference vectors utilizing solution equations for Euler sequence angles associated with rotation of a vehicle about a local frame reference vector. In particular, the method, computer program and system determines the attitude at a rate amenable for real time system use in conjunction with a wide array of sensor input sources such as star tracking devices, and provides estimators for the error in the reference vectors usable for surveillance of sensory input quality by flight management systems.

主权项

1. A computer implemented method for determining the attitude of a vehicle comprising the steps of: receiving input of paired reference vectors consisting of one pairing of a first local reference frame vector with a first body frame reference vector (first reference vectors) and a second local frame reference vector with a second body frame reference vector (second reference vectors); determining coefficient types D, yaw0, roll0, pitch0, K sr, yaw_low, and yaw_high coefficients from said reference vectors; determining from said coefficients whether a set of composite yaw limits common among the reference vectors exists from yaw range limitations for the first reference vectors and the second reference vectors; determining the attitude of a vehicle associated with the first reference vectors and second reference vectors by searching and identifying a yaw angle which minimizes a root mean square error among two sets of roll and pitch equations for the rotation of an object about a local reference frame vector where a composite yaw limit range exists; and determining the attitude of a vehicle associated with the first reference vectors and second reference vectors being at a yaw angle found to be associated with the minimum root mean square error among the yaw limit boundaries evaluated for both sets of roll and pitch equations for the rotation of an object about a local reference frame vector where a composite yaw limit range does not exist, and providing the corresponding Euler sequence angles associated with the minimum root mean square error to the calling program within a computer system.