X-ray pulsar-based autonomous navigation based on asynchronous observation ST-REKF

X-ray pulsar, as a natural star, has a high precision rotation period and strong antijamming capability. Its high stability and wide range of application is very suitable for spacecraft autonomous navigation. This paper presents an approach for the X-ray pulsar autonomous navigation based on asynchronous observation strong tracking robust kalman filter. The asynchronous observation model can more appropriately and more accurately describe the actual pulsar observation circumstances than the traditional synchronous observation model does. Navigation methods based on this observation model can achieve better real-time performance as well as higher positing accuracy. The approach presented in this paper using strong tracking robust kalman filter (ST-REKF) based on the asynchronous observation model for the pulsar positioning system can effectively improve the robustness and tracking ability to the actual state of the nonlinear system with uncertainties even when jumps occur after the system becomes smooth and steady, which can not be performed well by extended kalman filter (EKF).