METHOD FOR CALIBRATING SPATIAL ERRORS, AND METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR ESTIMATING THE ATTITUDE OF A VEHICLE
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Abstract
A method for calibrating spatial errors induced by phase biases having a detrimental effect on the measurements of phase differences of radio signals received by three unaligned receiving antennas of a vehicle. An inter-satellite angular deviation of a pair of satellites is estimated in two different ways: on the basis of the respective positions of the vehicle and of the satellites to obtain a theoretical inter-satellite angular deviation; and on the basis of the respective directions of incidence of the satellites relative to the vehicle, which are determined from phase measurements, to obtain an estimated inter-satellite angular deviation. The space errors are estimated on the basis of said theoretical and estimated inter-satellite angular deviations. Also, a method and system for estimating the attitude of a vehicle, in particular a spacecraft.
15 Citations
30 Claims
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1-15. -15. (canceled)
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16. A method for calibrating spatial errors induced by phase biases affecting measurements of phase differences of radio-electric signals received by at least three non-aligned reception antennas of a craft, said phase biases depending on a direction of incidence of the radio-electric signals with respect to the craft, comprises, comprising the steps of:
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obtaining respective positions of the craft and a pair of satellites situated at a given instant in a radio-electric field of view of the craft; estimating an inter-satellite angular distance of said pair of satellites as a function of the respective positions of the craft and said pair of satellites to obtain a theoretical inter-satellite angular distance; estimating respective directions of incidence of said pair of satellites with respect to the craft as a function of phase measurements of radio-electric signals received from said pair of satellites by the three non-aligned reception antennas of the craft; estimating the inter-satellite angular distance of said pair of satellites as a function of the respective directions of incidence of said pair of satellites with respect to the craft to obtain an estimated inter-satellite angular distance; and estimating the spatial errors for the respective directions of incidence of the said pair of satellites with respect to the craft as a function of the theoretical inter-satellite angular distance and of the estimated inter-satellite angular distance determined for said pair of satellites. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
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27. A system for estimating attitude of a craft as a function of measurements of phase differences of radio-electric signals, comprising:
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at least three non-aligned reception antennas on the craft for receiving the radio-electric signals; a first processing unit obtains respective positions of the craft and a pair of satellites situated at a given instant in a radio-electric field of view of the craft, and estimates an inter-satellite angular distance of said pair of satellites as a function of the respective positions of the craft and said pair of satellites to obtain a theoretical inter-satellite angular distance; a second processing unit estimates respective directions of incidence of said pair of satellites with respect to the craft as a function of phase measurements of radio-electric signals received from said pair of satellites by the three non-aligned reception antennas of the craft, and estimates the inter-satellite angular distance of said pair of satellites as a function of the respective directions of incidence of said pair of satellites with respect to the craft to obtain an estimated inter-satellite angular distance; and a third processing unit estimates the spatial errors for the respective directions of incidence of the said pair of satellites with respect to the craft as a function of the theoretical inter-satellite angular distance and of the estimated inter-satellite angular distance determined for said pair of satellites. - View Dependent Claims (28, 29, 30)
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Specification