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Error Compensation of a Low-Cost Analogue Sun Sensor for Micro-/Nano-satellites

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Abstract

The growth of micro-/nano-satellites requires miniaturized sun sensors which could be applied in the Attitude Determination and Control System easily, conveniently and cheaply. In this work, the error compensation methods of a low-cost Analogue Sun Sensor, COSSA, have been innovatively proposed, which mainly includes two error compensation mathematical models and related testing and calibration methods. From theory and engineering perspectives, Error Source Propagation Model and Linear Surface Fitting Model have been built, respectively; then zero-point calibration method and surface fitting calibration method have been illustrated to compensate the measurement error. After testing and calibration experiment, the accuracy of COSSA prototype is better than \(0.25^\circ \) (1\(\sigma \)), which is 2 \(\sim \) 4 times higher in accuracy compared with most analogue sun sensors. Therefore, the feasibility and effectiveness of error compensation methods could be well-proved.

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Data Availability

The data used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Funding

National Key Research and Development Program of China (Project No. 2021YFE0116000), Open Research of State Key Laboratory of Structural Analysis for Industrial Equipment (Project No. GZ20103), and Seed Foundation of Innovation and Creation for Graduate Students in Northwestern Polytechnical University (Project No. ZZ2018055).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Aerospace Science and Engineering, National University of Defense Technology, Changsha, 410073, China

    Miao Feng

  2. School of Astronautics, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, 710072, China

    Miao Feng

  3. COSATS Satellite Technology Co., Ltd., Beijing, 100192, China

    Xin Hu

  4. School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, 116024, China

    Xiaozhou Yu

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  1. Miao Feng
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  2. Xin Hu
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Contributions

Feng, M. and Yu, X. contributed the central idea. Hu, X. and Yu, X. provided the testing facilities, and Hu, X. completed the related experiments. Feng, M. analyzed most of the data and wrote the initial draft of this paper, Yu, X. and Hu, X. contributed to discussing some details and finalizing this paper.

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Correspondence to Xiaozhou Yu.

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Feng, M., Hu, X. & Yu, X. Error Compensation of a Low-Cost Analogue Sun Sensor for Micro-/Nano-satellites. Adv. Astronaut. Sci. Technol. 6, 87–100 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42423-023-00142-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42423-023-00142-y

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