Abstract:

To improve accuracy and real-time performance in relative positioning and measurement of attitude
information meterage of spacecraft, a dual quaternion model is introduced. The method described combines
relative rotation and translation between target spacecrafts and the spacecraft tracing coordinates. It uses a
spiral vector method to calculate the renovated dual quaternion. A camera survey model is constructed to
measure the relative position and attitude of the spacecraft. The extended Kalman filter (EKF) is used to
eliminate noise jamming caused in the state updating and the measurement processes. Simulation results show
that the navigation algorithm satisfies the precision requirements of spacecraft relative navigation.

Key words: spacecraft, dual quaternion, relative navigation, relative position and attitude, extended Kalman filter (EKF)