Optical System Error Analysis and Calibration Method of High-Accuracy Star Trackers

Sensors

Ting Sun¹  Fei Xing¹ 

[1] Department of Precision Instruments and Mechanology, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China; E-Mails:

关键词: star tracker;    error analysis;    calibration;    parameter estimation;   

DOI  :  10.3390/s130404598

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

The star tracker is a high-accuracy attitude measurement device widely used in spacecraft. Its performance depends largely on the precision of the optical system parameters. Therefore, the analysis of the optical system parameter errors and a precise calibration model are crucial to the accuracy of the star tracker. Research in this field is relatively lacking a systematic and universal analysis up to now. This paper proposes in detail an approach for the synthetic error analysis of the star tracker, without the complicated theoretical derivation. This approach can determine the error propagation relationship of the star tracker, and can build intuitively and systematically an error model. The analysis results can be used as a foundation and a guide for the optical design, calibration, and compensation of the star tracker. A calibration experiment is designed and conducted. Excellent calibration results are achieved based on the calibration model. To summarize, the error analysis approach and the calibration method are proved to be adequate and precise, and could provide an important guarantee for the design, manufacture, and measurement of high-accuracy star trackers.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2013 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.