Adaptive pose and inertial parameters estimation of free-floating tumbling space objects using dual vector quaternions

The robust parameter estimation of unknown space objects is essential to the on-orbit servicing missions. Based on the adaptive filtering techniques along with the dual quaternions modeling methods for pose estimation, this article proposes a dual vector quaternions–based extended Kalman filter and a dual vector quaternions–based adaptive fading factors extended Kalman filter to estimate the parameters of a free-floating tumbling space target. Using the dual vector quaternions to model the kinematics and dynamics of the system, the representation of the model is concise and compact. Also, the translational and rotational coupled effects are considered. In addition, the estimation algorithm is designed by the innovation-based multiple adaptive fading factors. As a result, the dual vector quaternions–based adaptive fading factors extended Kalman filter is robust against the faulty measurements which may lead to divergence of the traditional extended Kalman filter. As far as the authors know, both the design...