TRIAD-Aided EKF for Satellite Attitude Estimation and Sensor Calibration

Abstract

Increasing demand for the space operations, space industry turns its face to cost effective solutions. Small satellites, due to their size and cost, are receiving interest from many organizations. Two of most common sensors that are being used in nanosatellites are magnetometers and sun sensors. In this work, magnetometer and sun sensor measurements are fused together with the TRIAD algorithm to produce body angle estimation. Combining with gyroscopes measurements, an Extended Kalman Filter is used to estimate body angles, angular velocities, gyroscope and magnetometer biases.