The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jun. 02, 2026
Filed:
Mar. 27, 2023
Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Beijing, CN;
Jie Jiang, Beijing, CN;
Jisan Yang, Beijing, CN;
Lingfeng Tian, Beijing, CN;
Guangjun Zhang, Beijing, CN;
BEIJING UNIVERSITY OF AERONAUTICS AND ASTRONAUTICS, Beijing, CN;
Abstract
Disclosed is a method for joint estimation of stellar atmospheric refraction and star tracker attitude, including: capturing, by a star tracker, an image of stars, and recognizing the image to obtain a matching relationship between an observed star and a reference star; transforming the reference star to a terrestrial reference frame based on time and position of observation to obtain a true zenith distance of the reference star; calculating an estimated stellar atmospheric refraction based on a simplified atmospheric refraction model, the true zenith distance, and an initial atmospheric refractive coefficient, and subjecting the reference star to stellar atmospheric refraction compensation; calculating the star tracker attitude, and re-projecting the observed star to the terrestrial reference frame to calculate the observed stellar atmospheric refraction and the stellar atmospheric refraction error; if the observed stellar atmospheric refraction is misaligned with the estimated stellar atmospheric refraction, adjusting the atmospheric refractive coefficient based on the stellar atmospheric refraction error, and then recompensating the reference star and calculating the attitude, till the observed stellar atmospheric refraction is aligned with the estimated stellar atmospheric refraction, whereby joint estimation results of the stellar atmospheric refraction and the star tracker attitude are obtained. The disclosure realizes real-time, autonomous estimation and cancelation of stellar atmospheric refraction without being limited by external sensors or empirical formulae.