2017/05/28 by Adam L. Bruce, Bruce, Adam L.
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Engineering · #Adaptive Control of Nonlinear Systems #FOS: Mathematics #Geophysics and Gravity Measurements #Inertial Sensor and Navigation #Optimization and Control (math.OC)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1705.09971
openalex publication_date 2017/05/28 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
All quaternion methods for static attitude determination currently rely on either the spectral decomposition of a 4 x 4 matrix (q-Method) or finding the maximum eigenvalue of a 4th-order characteristic equation (QUEST). Using a spectral perturbation approach, we show it is possible to analytically estimate the attitude quaternion to high accuracy and recursively calculate the maximum-likelihood attitude quaternion to arbitrary numerical precision. Analytic or recursive estimation removes several numerical difficulties which are inherent to state-of-the-art algorithms, suggesting our results may substantially benefit high-frequency and limited memory embedded software implementations, such as those commonly used on spacecraft computers.