Method and apparatus for spacecraft gyroscope scale factor calibration

Abstract

A method and apparatus for estimating gyro scale factor during normal spacecraft operations, using small attitude motions that are compliant with mission pointing accuracy and stability requirements and a signal processing method that specifically detects the intentionally induced motions. This process increases operational availability by avoiding the need to take the spacecraft offline for large calibration maneuvers.

Claims

1. An apparatus for controlling an attitude of a vehicle, comprising: a gyroscope, wherein said gyroscope senses angular rate about an input axis; an attitude sensor, wherein said attitude sensor measures the attitude of said vehicle relative to an inertially-fixed reference frame; an attitude command generator, wherein said attitude command generator generates a multi-axis attitude command signal; a dither signal generator, wherein said dither signal generator generates a dither signal having a periodic angular displacement of a predetermined angular amplitude and a predetermined fundamental frequency, said dither signal further having a periodic rate of change of angular displacement having the same predetermined fundamental frequency as said periodic angular displacement and having a sign that alternates positive and negative, said dither signal representing periodic angular motion about an axis in said inertially-fixed reference frame; a summer having inputs connected to said attitude command generator and said dither signal generator, wherein said summer receives said multi-axis attitude control signal and said dither signal and outputs a modified attitude command signal that is equal to a vector sum of said inputs; an attitude determination and control module comprising a processor, wherein said attitude determination and control module receives data from said gyroscope and said attitude sensor and receives said modified altitude command signal from said summer, said processor uses said gyroscope and attitude sensor data to calculate an estimate of true vehicle attitude, and said attitude determination and control module generates torque commands to cause a true attitude of said vehicle to track said modified attitude command signal; an attitude actuator, wherein said attitude actuator imparts a torque to said vehicle in accordance with said torque commands generated by said attitude determination and control module.

2. A method for calibrating a scale factor of a gyroscope using the apparatus of claim 1, comprising the steps of: imparting a mechanical excitation using said attitude and determination control module to a vehicle having a gyroscope, said mechanical excitation having a periodic angular displacement of a predetermined angular amplitude and a predetermined fundamental frequency, said mechanical excitation further having a periodic rate of change of angular displacement, the periodic rate of change having the same predetermined fundamental frequency as said mechanical excitation and having a sign that alternates positive and negative, said mechanical excitation being imparted about an axis in said inertially-fixed reference frame; detecting a component of an output of the gyroscope, said detected component having the same predetermined fundamental frequency as said mechanical excitation; computing a measured angular amplitude from said detected component of the output of the gyroscope; collecting attitude measurements from said attitude sensor during a time interval over which the mechanical excitation occurs; detecting a component of the collected attitude measurements, said component having the same predetermined fundamental frequency as said mechanical excitation; and computing an angular amplitude of said component of the collected attitude measurements.

3. The apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said calibration is performed while said vehicle is also performing a function other than said calibration.

4. The apparatus according to claim 3, wherein said vehicle, while said calibration is performed, continues to comply with functional and performance specifications of said other function.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) For a more complete understanding of the present invention and the advantages thereof, reference is now made to the following description and the accompanying drawings, in which:

(2) FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an exemplary spacecraft attitude control system (ACS) including spacecraft attitude dynamics.

(3) FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a method for introducing a dither signal into a spacecraft ACS in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

(4) FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a method for estimating gyro scale factor using the gyro and star tracker output signals in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

(5) FIG. 4A is a graph of a sample dither signal in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention examined in the developmental simulations.

(6) FIG. 4B is a graph of the angular rate profiles corresponding to the dither signal of FIG. 4A.

(7) FIG. 4C is a graph of the torque profiles corresponding to the dither signal of FIG. 4A, assuming an inertia value of 16000 kg-m.sup.2 for illustrative purposes.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

(8) The present invention provides a method and apparatus for estimating gyro scale factor during normal spacecraft operations. While the invention is described in the context of spacecraft, the invention could be applied to any vehicle or system whose motion is of interest. The invention uses small attitude motions that are compliant with the pointing accuracy and stability requirements of the mission and a signal processing method that specifically detects the intentionally induced motions. This invention increases operational availability by avoiding the need to take the spacecraft offline for large calibration maneuvers.

(9) An exemplary spacecraft attitude control system (ACS) and its interactions with the attitude dynamics of the spacecraft are shown in FIG. 1. The combined system of ACS 20 and spacecraft dynamics 60 is denoted as 10. The attitude command generator 22 provides a series of three-axis attitude commands 40 with respect to an inertial reference frame such as the Earth-centered inertial reference frame known as J2000. The commanded attitude profile is generated on-board in accordance with the requirements of the particular mission.

(10) The invention introduces the dither angle profile 106 at summing junction 24, and the resulting modified attitude command profile 42 is input to the attitude determination and control module 26. In the attitude determination and control module 26 attitude determination and control algorithms are implemented as flight software that is executed on a processor within the module. The attitude determination and control algorithms use gyro data 48 and star tracker data 50 to estimate the true spacecraft attitude 66 and angular rate 64. The spacecraft attitude and angular rate estimates are internal to the attitude determination and control module 26 in FIG. 1 and are not explicitly shown there. The algorithms performed in module 26 also estimate gyro biases, which the algorithms subtract from the gyro rates to yield compensated gyro rates 52. The attitude determination and control module 26 generates torque commands 44 such that the true attitude 66 closely tracks the modified commanded attitude 42.

(11) Dither feed-forward torque signal 110 may be applied to improve dither tracking performance of the ACS loop without requiring high closed-loop bandwidth. The feed-forward torque signal 110 is summed with the attitude control torque 44 at summing junction 28 to form the torque command 46 to the ACS actuators 30. The ACS actuators 30 may be, for example, a set of reaction wheels capable of imparting a three-axis control torque 62 to the spacecraft.

(12) The spacecraft attitude dynamics 60 govern the mechanical response of the spacecraft to control torque 62. The attitude kinematics of the spacecraft include three-axis attitude 66 and three-axis angular rate 64, which are measured by star trackers 34 and gyros 32, respectively. The gyro data 48 and star tracker attitudes 50 are fed back to the attitude determination and control module 26.

(13) The gyro data 48 may be angular rate, incremental angle, or integrated angle, depending on the type of gyro used. In any case, the attitude determination and control module 26 converts the gyro data 48 to angular rate about each of the three orthogonal spacecraft body axes for use by other parts of the attitude determination and control algorithms. The conversion of raw gyro data 48 to angular rate about the three body axes includes correction for misalignment, which may use a fixed misalignment correction matrix or a dynamically estimated correction. The star trackers are assumed without loss of generality to output three-axis inertial attitude data 50 using an attitude representation such as quaternions that indicate the attitude of the spacecraft with respect to a standard inertially-fixed, Earth-centered reference frame, such as the J2000 or Geocentric Celestial Reference Frame (GCRF). The star tracker data 50 and compensated gyro rates about the three orthogonal spacecraft body axes 52 are used to calibrate gyro scale factors.

(14) The present invention commands a sinusoidal dither profile 106, which is superimposed onto the nominal attitude profile of the spacecraft. The sinusoidal dither is fully characterized by its amplitude and frequency. The phase angle of the dither is inconsequential for the present invention; therefore, without loss of generality it is implicitly equal to zero in the remaining descriptions. The dither amplitude and frequency are predetermined so that attitude error, attitude rate, attitude stability, and ACS actuator torque margin requirements are satisfied. A dither profile so prescribed will by definition not violate these requirements, thereby avoiding the need to suspend normal operations during calibration. The preferred embodiment of the present invention uses an amplitude of 100 microradians and a period of 51.2 seconds, where dither period is the reciprocal of dither frequency. These values were selected based on the mission parameters described earlier, and other values may be used. The dither angle 106, angular rate, and on-axis torque profiles for a representative spacecraft are shown in FIGS. 4A, 4B and 4C.

(15) If necessary to achieve sufficient signal to noise ratio, dither parameters may be selected at levels that result in violations of one or more of the aforementioned requirements. In such cases, the present invention remains advantageous over prior art because it can perform gyro calibration with smaller motions and therefore less disruption to the mission, due to its ability to discriminate the dither in the presence of nominal spacecraft motion, disturbances, and noise.

(16) FIG. 2 shows a dither generation module 100 and its interconnection with the ACS 20. The dither angle signal 106 is generated by dither generator 102 as:
d(t)=A*sin(ω*t),
where d(t) is the dither angle 106 in radians, t is time in seconds, A is a vector of amplitudes in radians, and ω is the frequency in radians per second. The vector A is sets the amplitude of the dither signal and steers it to the desired axis in the spacecraft frame. The dither feed-forward torque 110 is calculated by multiplying the dither angular acceleration 108 by an estimate of the spacecraft inertia tensor 104. Dither angular acceleration 108 is calculated as:
a(t)=−A*ω.sup.2*sin(ω*t),
where a(t) is the dither angular acceleration 108 in radians per second squared, and t, A, and ω are as defined above. Note that if the estimated spacecraft inertia tensor 104 includes products of inertia, then the dither feed-forward torque 110 preemptively corrects for cross-axis motion due to inertial coupling, to the extent that the estimated inertia 104 represents the true inertia tensor of the spacecraft. When the dither generator 102 is active, the dither angle 106 and dither feed-forward torque 110 signals are computed as described in this paragraph. When the dither generator is inactive, the dither angle 106 and dither feed-forward torque 110 signals are set to zero.

(17) FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 show the outputs of the dither generation module 100 used as inputs into the ACS 20. The dither generator signals 106, 110 are applied to the ACS 20 in such a way as to induce the dither motion in a single axis at a time. Methods for commanding motion about a single axis are well known to those practiced in the art of spacecraft attitude control systems and depend on the particular attitude representation used in the nominal three-axis attitude commands 40 and modified attitude command profile 42. For example, if the nominal and modified attitude commands are represented as quaternions, then the dither angle command 106 must also be represented as a quaternion. Similarly, in this example the summing junction 24 must perform quaternion multiplication. After the gyro scale factors are calibrated for the first axis, the process is repeated for the remaining axes, one at a time.

(18) FIG. 3 shows the gyro scale factor calibration method and apparatus 200 of the present invention in block diagram form. Inputs include star tracker attitude data 50 and compensated gyro rate data 52. The output of the method and apparatus 200 is the estimated gyro scale factor 230 for the current spacecraft axis being calibrated. The axis being calibrated is excited by the sinusoidal dither signal 106, and ACS 20 tracking is aided by the dither torque feed-forward signal 110.

(19) In FIG. 3, the gyro processing block 202 integrates the compensated gyro rates 52 over the time span required for a single point estimate of the gyro scale factor. For the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the time span used to obtain a point estimate of gyro scale factor is sixteen times the dither period. Other times spans, of course, may be used. The initial condition for the integration of the compensated gyro rate 52 is reset to zero for each time span processed. The resulting angle profile 220 is processed by Fourier methods.

(20) The star tracker processing 204 shown in FIG. 3 extracts the angular motion profile about the axis being calibrated. The single-axis profile consists of small-angle deviations about the mean attitude over the calibration period. The resulting star tracker angle profile 222 has a mean value of zero and is subsequently processed by Fourier methods.

(21) The next step of the present invention determines the Fourier coefficients of gyro angle profile 220 and star tracker angle profile 222 corresponding to the dither frequency. Since a sinusoidal signal of a known frequency is injected into the system, the signature of that signal can be precisely detected within noisy sensor data by Fourier methods. The preferred embodiment of the present invention uses Fast Fourier Transforms (FFT 206 and 208) to determine the amplitudes of the sinusoidal component at the dither frequency for gyro angle profile 220 and star tracker angle profile 222. Other Fourier methods employed at this stage of the process would work equally well and are used in alternate embodiments of the invention. There are methods well-known to those practiced in the art for direct computation of the Fourier coefficient for a specific frequency, which in the case of the present invention is the dither frequency.

(22) For the preferred embodiment using FFTs 206 and 208, performance is optimized by selecting a dither period that yields a number of data points per period that is a power of two, and setting the time span such that the number of points processed by the FFTs 206 and 208 is also a power of two. For example, the sample rate may be 10 Hz, yielding 512 (2.sup.9) points per dither period and 8192 (2.sup.13) points (16 dither periods) in each data span processed by the FFTs 206 and 208. The first constraint, having a power of two number of points per dither period, ensures that the dither frequency will be exactly aligned to one of the coefficients output by the FFT. Otherwise, one would need to interpolate between FFT output points in order to estimate the amplitude at the dither frequency, thereby losing accuracy. The second constraint, having a power of two number of points per data span, enables the FFT to function with optimal efficiency. The latter constraint is less important than the former, since it only affects processing efficiency and not calibration accuracy.

(23) The method of the present invention then calculates the ratio 228 of the dither-frequency Fourier coefficients for the gyro 224 and star tracker 226 via an arithmetic divide operation 210 to obtain the amplitude of the dither content measured by the gyro relative to the amplitude of the dither content measured by the star trackers. Scale factor errors are not a concern for star trackers as their calibrations are typically accurate and stable. The present invention takes the scale factor of the star trackers to be unity. The star tracker measurement of dither motion represents the true motion of the spacecraft, to within the temporal and spatial error characteristics of the star trackers. The ratio 228 of the gyro to star tracker Fourier coefficients at the dither frequency is a point estimate of the gyro scale factor. By taking the ratio 228 of the gyro to star tracker Fourier coefficients, the present invention is insensitive to the tracking accuracy of the ACS 20 with respect to the dither signal 106.

(24) The present invention calculates a number, N, of point estimates 228 of gyro scale factor and the mean of those estimates is computed by an N-point mean block 212 the result being the gyro scale factor estimate 230 for the axis under calibration. The N point estimates 228 are obtained from non-overlapping time spans of data so that random errors will be nearly statistically independent. The estimation error for the scale factor estimate 230 is expected to be diminished with respect to the error of a single point estimate 228 by approximately a factor of one divided by the square root of N. For the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the number N of point estimates is four, and the expected reduction factor in the error of the scale factor estimate 230 relative to the error of a single point estimate 228 is therefore 0.5, or one-half. Other numbers N of point estimates may be used in N-point mean block 212.

(25) The dither generation module 100 and scale factor calibration module 200 calibrate each of the axes independently in succession to minimize cross-axis coupling effects.

(26) The preferred embodiment of the present invention as disclosed herein is a specific example of the invention and is not to be construed as restricting the scope of the invention. For example, the invention would also be applicable to non-spacecraft applications that require accurate gyro calibration, such as air, land, and sea vehicles, civilian or military. Similarly, alternate reference sensors other than star trackers may be used. While the present invention is designed to use the various features and elements in the combination and relations described, some of these may be altered and others omitted without interfering with the more general results outlined, and the invention extends to such use. Modifications may be made to the methods and apparatus described without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, the invention is not to be limited except as by the appended claims.