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Precise in-orbit relative navigation technique for rendezvous mission of CubeSats using only GPS receivers

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Abstract

This paper proposes a global positioning system (GPS) based relative navigation algorithm for CubeSats that perform autonomous rendezvous and docking missions. To realize precise relative navigation using only GPS, an algorithm is developed to improve the differential GPS (DGPS) performance by reducing the integer ambiguity search space of carrier-phase DGPS. To this end, a Hatch filter is used to improve the pseudorange noise performance, and range-domain DGPS-based single-frequency relative navigation is realized. Because GPS measurements are transmitted intermittently using an inter-satellite link, orbit propagation is performed using the Hill–Clohessy–Wiltshire equation. Moreover, to improve the performance of the propagation error accumulated over time, an in-orbit velocity moving average filter is incorporated. Because the rate change of relative motion in the local-vertical-local-horizontal coordinate system on the orbit is small, the noise level for the relative velocity and overall relative navigation system performance are improved. To demonstrate the usefulness of the proposed method, software-in-the-loop simulation and processor-in-the-loop simulation-based real-time implementation is realized on the onboard computer of a reference CubeSat (SNUGLITE-III A, target) and thruster-equipped CubeSat (SNUGLITE-III B, chaser), and their performances are evaluated.

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Based on the simulation results presented in Chapter 4.2, we confirmed that our proposed method improved performance by 10% and 31% for two different simulated conditions. As a result, we added the content that demonstrated at least a 10% performance improvement.

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Acknowledgements

This work is supported by a Korea Agency for Infrastructure Technology Advancement (KAIA) grant funded by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (Grant 21CTAP-C164137-01), contracted through by the Institute of Advanced Machines and Design at Seoul National University. This research was supported (in part) by the Institute of Advanced Aerospace Technology at Seoul National University. The Institute of Engineering Research at Seoul National University provided research facilities for this work. Additionally, the initial version of this work was presented at the KSAS-CEAS special session at the Korean Society for Aeronautical and Space Sciences (KSAS) 2022 Fall Conference. The authors would like to thank all parties involved for their valuable contributions to this research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Aerospace Engineering and the Institute of Advanced Machines and Design, Seoul National University, Seoul, 08826, Korea

    Hanjoon Shim & Changdon Kee

  2. Department of Aerospace Engineering, Sejong University, Seoul, 05006, Korea

    O-Jong Kim

  3. System LSI, Samsung Electronics, Hwaseong, 18448, Korea

    Sunkyoung Yu

  4. Department of Aerospace Engineering, Busan National University, Busan, 46241, Korea

    Dong-Hyun Cho

  5. School of Aerospace and Software Engineering, Gyeongsang National University, Jinju, 52828, Korea

    Hae-Dong Kim

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  1. Hanjoon Shim
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Correspondence to Changdon Kee.

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Shim, H., Kim, OJ., Yu, S. et al. Precise in-orbit relative navigation technique for rendezvous mission of CubeSats using only GPS receivers. CEAS Space J 16, 117–137 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12567-023-00488-x

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