Survey of Global-Positioning-System-Based Attitude Determination Algorithms

Abstract

The phase quartic algorithm and attitude-lean-loping estimator with GPS recursive operations (ALLEGRO) have been proposed in a study. Both of these algorithms demonstrate a high rate of error convergence. The phase quartic is an eigenvalue-based estimation algorithm, whereas ALLEGRO is derived based on the minimal model error estimation algorithm. The quaternion vector has been used as the primary attitude representation, except for direction computational matrix (DCM) and attitude matrix solution (AMES) methods. The DCM uses Euler angles, whereas AMES uses nine elements of the attitude matrix as the attitude representation. This study focuses mainly on the existing real-time GPS-based attitude determination methods that are feasible for space application.