摘要 |
<p>A precision satellite tracking system (10) incorporating a novel smoothing processor (14). The satellite tracking system (10) estimates an angle between an antenna (11) boresight and a desired line of sight to a moving satellite (12). The smoothing processor (14) receives a sequence of pointing error measurements and using a Taylor series mathematical model of the satellite motion, the processor (14) utilizes the sequence of measurements to generate the coefficients of the Taylor series model. The processor (14) then executes a sequential, discounted least mean square algorithm to estimate the satellite's angular position, velocity, and acceleration as a function of time. Based on these estimates, the processor (14) determines incremental adjustments to azimuth and elevation pointing angles of the antenna (11) to maintain the center of an antenna beam (13) on the moving satellite (12). The information is used in a program track mode to continually update the pointing of the antenna beam (13) during the measurement process. The satellite tracking system (10) provides continuous tracking of the antenna (11), which minimizes the instantaneous error between the reported direction of the line of sight and the actual direction to the satellite (12). <IMAGE></p> |