Application of EKF for Missile Attitude Estimation based on SINS/CNS

Integrated Guidance System

Deng Hong, Guangbin Liu, Haoming Chen, Chunlin Deng
303 section
Research Inst. Of High-tech Hongqing Town 710025
Xian, China
dhinsaec@163.com, chm_ep_303@163.com

AbstractTo get high-precision attitude of missile in
SINS/CNS integrated guidance system, which has
significant affected the attitude control system and accuracy of
error separation, for example, the gyro drift, we built
"SINS/CNS" measurement amendment program of missile
boost phase for remote-range ballistic missile. Extended
Kalman filter is applied to determine real-time, high-precision
missile attitude in the program, and the quaternion kinematics
equation is established and the inertial navigation system with
the star sensor observation data fusion to estimate the error of
inertial compensation. Simulations shows that the approach
meets the engineering practice because attitude determination
can achieve fast convergence and high accuracy compared
with QUEST, MLS, inertial iterative algorithm used in
practice now.
Keywords-EKF; missile attitude estimation; SINS/CNS
integrated guidance system; Star sensor
I. INTRODUCTION
SINS/CNS integrated guidance system has advantages
of highly autonomous character, good ability of concealment,
strong anti-jamming capacity, high measuring precision, and
may have important and wide uses in ballistic missile. The
direction vector of star in celestial coordinate system is fixed,
star tracker is recognized as the most accurate attitude
estimation equipment for a long observation time nowadays,
taking stellar parallax, nutation and measurement noises, etc.
into consideration. SINS initial alignment error and gyro
random drift can be estimated and corrected by a fusion in
SINS and star sensor observation data, consequently, rapid
& mobile launch can be realized and hitting precision of
missile can accordingly be improved
[1-5]
.
The key technique in "SINS/CNS" integrated navigation
system can be classified as: (1) Research on estimation of
position and direction of spacecraft; (2) Star pattern
identification; (3) Studies of spacecraft attitude estimation;
(4) Navigation error separation. Among the keys, attitude
estimation is a major subject, which always is classified as:
(1) Attitude estimation under the static state condition.
TRAID, QUEST, and MLS and so on are the typical
representative algorithms with simple and quick calculation;
(2) Attitude estimation under dynamic state condition which
estimates attitude using star maps for a period of time for
observation. The typical representative algorithms are EKF,
UKF, and MPF, etc
[6-8]
. Comparison of two kinds of attitude
estimation methods from calculation speed and estimation
accuracy was described in TABLE 1.
TABLE I. COMPARISONS OF TWO ATTITUDE ESTIMATION
Estimation
condition
Calculation
speed
Accuracy Reliability
Real-time
property
Easy for
engineering
Static quick low high good easy
Dynamic slow high low bad Not easy
While research on satellite navigation attitude estimation
based on star sensor observation data is a lot, and few on
ballistic missile. It is very common to estimate missile
attitude by QUEST, MLS based on star sensor in
engineering practice, but such static algorithms cannot
effectively use the entire star sensor observation information,
accuracy is less high.
The Special Characteristics of the ballistic missile
determine that the attitude estimation algorithm is proposed
for at least the following requirements: (1) algorithm is
simple; (2) real-time estimates; (3) convergence speed; (4)
high estimation accuracy. We apply EKF (Extended Kalman
Filter) to missile attitude estimation in SINS/CNS
integrated guidance system.
This paper is organized with five sections: Section 1 is
introduction, and discusses the background and significance
of the study. Section 2 analyses the reasons that lead to high-
precision attitude cannot be got in boost phase, and
discussed SINS/CNS measurement amendment program.
Section 3 builds System model in the launch inertial
coordinate system, which includes the missile kinematics
equations, inertial reference measurement equation, star
tracker measurement equation and so on. Section 4 gives
experimental results and analysis, and demonstrates the
efficiency of the approach. The final section is conclusion
and gives some points for attention in further study.
II. "SINS/CNS" MEASUREMENT AMENDMENT
PROGRAM
As a theoretical research, some scholars have assumed
that once the missile fly out the atmosphere, the star sensor
mounted on the missile can work based on " SINS / CNS "
integrated navigation mode. Star observations can be used to
the initial attitude error correction or attitude estimation.
1101 978-1-4244-6044-1/10/$26.00 2010 IEEE

In this paper, the above issues were discussed from an
engineering point of view. The results show that the above-
mentioned limitations of the theory in order to follow-up
study to provide reference.
(1) In theory, after the missile fly out the atmosphere
(generally considered as the atmospheric boundary 20 ~
30Km), the air is thin, so the refraction of air on Star,
scattering effects can be ignored, which meets the star of the
high-precision attitude sensor output condition. In fact, at
this time of missile engines in a working state brought with
the attendant a variety of disturbing torque, which resulting
in a significant high-frequency irregular vibration, that is,
"dynamic conditions". At present, star sensor at home and
abroad can not be in such a vibration under conditions of
high-precision attitude output, or even an effective attitude
output.
(2) In " large vibration conditions", star sensor can be
mounted on the inertial platform to isolate the large
vibration environmental impacts. However, star sensor
cannot observe star in this condition even if missile fly out
of the atmosphere. So it is impossible to carry out single
stars, double stars, or star-map identification. In addition,
because the engine is in working condition, it is impossible
to adjust missile attitude to meet that star sensor can observe
star lights.
Therefore, the entire flight is concerned, the missile mass
is constantly changing and there are various uncertain
impacts, such as inertia moment of error, disturbance torque
error, the result is that star sensor strap-down can start to
capture stars must after primary engines shut down in order
to work under a relatively static conditions. From the
moment, missile takes uncontrolled flight phase step, three-
axis attitude angular rate is very small, and the real-time
missile attitude can be calculated through the star pattern
recognition. Figure 1 shows this analysis of the "SINS /
CNS" measure to amend the program.


Figure 1. "SINS/CNS" Measurement Amendment Program
III. SYSTEM MODEL
System model was built in the launch inertial coordinate
system, which includes the missile kinematics equations,
inertial reference measurement equation, star tracker
measurement equation and so on.
A. Kinematics Equation of Missile
Quaternion is a common description of parameters of
aircraft attitude, defined as
[ ]
0 1 2 3
T
q q q q q = (1)
The orthogonality constraint of Quaternion is
2 2 2 2
0 1 2 3
1 q q q q + + + =
.
, quaternion differential equation,
that is, the missile kinematic equation:
1 1
( ) ( )
2 2
q q q = =
(2)
Then, define , q , ( ) , ( ) q as follows:
1 1 1
T
x y z
( =

(3a)
[ ]
0 1 2 3
T
q q q q q = (3b)
[ ]
( )
0
T

(
=
(

(3c)
[ ]
4 3 3 13
13
( )
T
q I q
q
q

+ (
=
(

(3d)
B. Inertial Reference Measurement Model
Approximately gyroscope measurement model is:
( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( )
( ) 0
( ) ( ) ( )
g g
d
t t d t b t n t
b t
d t D d t n t

= + + +

= +

(4)
This includes:
( )
g
t
is the output of gyroscope
measurement. ( ) d t is the first-order drift of gyroscope,
which is often described as an application of first-order
Markov process. ( ) b t is the constant drift of gyroscope.
( )
g
n t
is the measurement white noise;
d
n
is the white
noise;
D

is a diagonal matrix composed of

( , , )
i
i x y z =

which is related time constant.
C. The System State Equation
In order to obtain high-precision missile's attitude,
constant drift, first-order drift will often be taken into
account in the state equation at the same time, taking 10-
dimensional system state variables:
0 1 2 3
[ ]
x y z x y z
x q q q q d d d b b b = (5)
Differential equation as follows:
( ) ( ) ( )
g
d
q
n
x f x Gn F x d G x
n
b
(
(
(
= + = +
(
(

(

(6)
Then, define ( ) F x , ( ) G x as follows:
0.5 ( ) 0.5 ( ) 0.5 ( )
( ) 0 0
0 0 0
g
q q
F x D

(
(
=
(
(


(37a)
0.5 ( ) 0
( ) 0
0 0
q
G x I
(
(
=
(
(


(7b)
This includes:
g
n
,
d
n
is unrelated, white Gaussian
noise with zero normal mean and variance is
2
g

,
2
d

.
Differential equation is lined by Jacobin matrix in
EKF as follows:
1 1
2 2 3 3
| 1 1
1 1
...
2! 3!
k k
k k k
I F T F T F T


= + + + + +


2 2
1 1 1 1
1 1
(1 ...)
2! 3!
k k k k
G T F T F T G

= + + +

(8)
1102

| 1 1 1 1 k k k k k k
X X G W

= +

This includes,
| 1 k k
is the state transition matrix,
1 k
G


is noise matrix,
1 k
W

is zero mean white noise sequence,
T is filtering step.
D. Star Sensor Measurement Model
Missile quaternion attitude is gained through the MLS
single-point attitude determination algorithm, which
calculated the position of the vector of optical centre
according to missile body attitude changes, through the star
pattern recognition. Measurement equation is as follows:
( )
k v
y k Hx n = + (9)
This includes:
[ ]
4 4 4 6
0 H I

=
,
v
n
is approximately
Gaussian white noise with zero normal mean, variance is
2
v

.
IV. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS AND ANALYSIS
A. Simulation Conditions
Simulation started to be 130 second, which supposed
that pitch was 35 degrees, yaw was 0.05 degrees and roll
was 0 degree, after primary engine shut down according to
measurement amendment program, taking remote-range
ballistic missile as an example. At this point the missile
mainly suffered the Earths gravity which does not have an
impact on the motion of around of mass because it passed
through the centre of missile mass. In addition, inertial force
involved which arising from the earths rotation and coriolis
inertial force were neglected to account because of small
implications. Therefore, the motion of around of missile
mass after primary engine shut down can be considered to
be generated only by the impulse and thrust under the action
of additional disturbing torque. According to the value of the
termination impulse and disturbance torque, angular velocity
was supposed to be less than
0
0.06 / sec in the simulation.
Here, gyro parameters used in the simulation are as
follows.
TABLE II. GYRO PARAMETERS
standard deviation of
white noise
0.05deg/
g
n
h =

the initial values of
constant drift error
[ ] (0) 0.3 0.3 0.3 deg/
T
b h =

time constant involved 1
x y z
h = = =

standard deviation of
drive white noise
0.03deg/
d
n
h =

the initial values of
first-order drift
(0) [0.09648 0.09648 0.09648]deg/ d h =

B. Model and Simulation Result Analysis
1) Simulation model
The angular velocity was a small value according to
project practice. It is supposed pitch to be
0
0.06 / h , yaw to
be
0
0.02 / h , roll to be
0
0.01 / h and additional noise to be a
0.01 multiple of three-axis angular velocity simultaneously
in the simulation. The whole system simulation is employed
under the software MATLAB7.1. Simulation curves of
three-axis angular velocity and angle are shown in Fig 2, 3.
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900
0
0.1
0.2
P
i
t
c
h

R
a
t
e
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900
0
0.02
0.04
Y
a
w

R
a
t
e
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900
0.005
0.01
0.015
t/s
R
o
l
l

R
a
t
e

Figure 2. Simulation curve of three-axis angle rate
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900
0
100
200
P
i
t
c
h
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900
0
20
40
Y
a
w
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900
0
5
10
t/s
R
o
l
l

Figure 3. Simulation curve of three-axis angle
2) Result analysis
To suppose that synchronous control of gyro and star
sensor output was finished. Filter sampling interval was set
to be 1 second, simulation time was set to be 15 minutes,
and gyro drifts were modified once for one second. To avoid
the calculation error of converting quaternion to Euler
angles, results analysis was carried out by quaternion.
Quaternion error simulation curve was shown in Figure 4.
Constant drift error curve was shown in Figure 5. One first-
order drift error curve was shown in Figure 6.

Figure 4. Quaternion estimation error
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900
-0.05
0
0.05
q0
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900
-0.05
0
0.05
q1
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900
-0.05
0
0.05
q2
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900
-0.05
0
0.05
t/s
q3

1103


Figure 5. constant drift error

Figure 6. first-order drift error
Analysis from the mean deviation and standard square
deviation of quaternion error and constant, first-order drift
error, the result was shown in Table III, IV.
TABLE III. ANALYSIS OF QUATERNION ERROR
deviation q0 q1 q2 q3
mean 0.007491 -0.0002833 0.0008581 0.005776
standard 0.005479 0.008464 0.009042 0.007147
Filter for SINS/CNS attitude estimation has a fast
convergence speed and good stability. Quaternion Error
deviation is about 1 10
24
. Gyro constant and first-order
drift error deviation is about 1 10
24
respectively.
Comparing the result data with the data of single-point
static attitude estimation and the data of inertial iterative
recursive algorithm (The latter two kinds of algorithms will
not be recounted in paper)
[9-12]
, we can draw conclusion that
missile attitude estimated by EKF is more accuracy than that
of the last two.
V. CONCLUSIONS
We applied EKF to "SINS / CNS" attitude estimation
problem in boost phase, which has a smaller attitude angle
rate. Simulation results show that EKF filter algorithm can
meet the engineering applications with fast convergence and
high-precision. However, the measurement data used in the
simulation program ignored the star sensor installation error,
which hinged together with missile initial condition error
and inertial error, etc. So far, research still remains to isolate
the error separately. In addition, SINS/CNS integrated
guidance system and large angle attitude maneuvers angle
attitude maneuvers is the main trends of development of
ballistic missiles, the missile Attitude Determination and
error separation technology under such conditions are a
worthwhile in-depth study of new problem.
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TABLE IV. ANALYSIS OF CONSTANT AND FIRST-ORDER DRIFT ERROR
deviation b1 b2 b3 d1 d2 d3
mean 0.0001456 4.278e-005 -0.0005188 -8.085e-005 -0.000339 -0.0002221
standard 0.008492 0.009534 0.01492 0.00763 0.008637 0.01369

d3
t/s
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900
-0.5
0
0.5 d1
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900
-0.1
0
0.1 d2
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900
-0.2
0
0.2

b3
t/s
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900
-0.5
0
0.5 b1
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900
-0.2
0
0.2 b2
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900
-0.5
0
0.5

1104