Attitude Determination System for a CubeSat Experiencing Eclipse

Abstract

In the context of Kalman filters, the predicted error covariance matrix $\mathbf{P}_{k+1}$ and measurement noise covariance matrix $\mathbf{R}$ are used to represent the uncertainty of state variables and measurement noise, respectively. However, in real-world situations, these matrices may vary with time due to measurement faults. To address this issue in CubeSat attitude estimation, an adaptive extended Kalman filter has been proposed that can dynamically estimate the predicted error covariance matrix and measurement noise covariance matrix using an expectation-maximization approach. Simulation experiments have shown that this algorithm outperforms existing methods in terms of attitude estimation accuracy, particularly in sunlit and shadowed phases of the orbit, with the same filtering parameters and initial conditions.