This paper develops a relative position and velocity estimation approach for spacecrafts in proximity. A dynamical model is built at first to describe the relative motion between the chaser and target. In this approach a light detection and ranging (LIDAR) system is used to perform the range and angle measurements of the target relative to the chaser. The three-axis magnetometer (TAM) and gyro are installed on the chaser to measure the chasers attitude. An extended Kalman filter (EKF) is designed to estimate the relative state by combination of the measurements and dynamical model. Numerical simulations prove the validity of proposed filter.
Extended Kalman Filter Based Relative State Estimation for Satellites in Formation Flying