Some aerospace applications of estimation theory

In this report, the application of estimation theory to three problems from aerospace research is described. The applications considered deal with spacecraft attitude estimation, software reliability modelling and estimation, and with a satellite-based navigation algorithm. Maximum likelihood estimation is used in the software reliability case...

Bayesian estimation for decision-directed stochastic control

Stochastic processes with a decision-directed control are considered as controlled Markov processes, the state space of which is hybrid; i.e. a product of a discrete set and a Euclidean space. This approach yields a mathematical model for many problems of decision-directed stochastic control. In general, the observations made from the "past" and...

A positioning system based on NAVSAT

A worldwide navigation system called NAVSAT is discussed. This positioning system is based on satellites which broadcast information which can be used by receivers of this Information to estimate their position. The motion of the users is modelled by splines. The estimation procedure is based on the extended Kalman filter approach.

Dynamics of flexible spacecraft: an analysis approaches towards mathematical model order reduction

Increases in size and mechanical complexity of spacecraft result in increased complexity of the mathematical model which describes the spacecraft dynamics. This results in turn in increased computational effort, in increased difficulties in understanding the characteristics of the spacecraft dynamics, and in increased difficulties in the design...

Comparison of a jump-diffusion tracker with a Kalman tracker: an evaluation with emphasis on air traffic control

A sophisticated starting point for a probabilistic approach to the radar tracking problem is a Markov jump-diffusion model for the aircraft dynamics, its control and the radar measurements. From nonlinear filtering theory, a closed form description of the evolution of the conditional distribution of this Markov process can be obtained. This jump...

Application of model following control and estimation techniques to attitude control of manoeuvring spacecraft Part I: Theory and simulation results

This document presents an approach to sampled data, on-board estimation and control of the attitude motion of manoeuvring spacecraft. Algorithms which are developed include: a - model following control of attitude manoeuvres b - estimation of spacecraft state (attitude, angular velocity, disturbance torque) c - optical-inertial attitude...

Digital filtering methods, with applications to satellite attitude determination in the presence of modelling errors. Part I: theory

The report reviews a number of digital filtering methods and gives examples of their application. The methods include batch processing methods and rec\irsive methods, not only in the classical formulations but also in square-root formulations. The latter formulations have the purpose to prevent certain numerical inconveniences. Much attention is...