Micro-Navigation Satellite Network Design and Analysis

Accurate position and orientation data are the bases for successful navigation. In this paper, we design and analyze the micro-navigation satellite network that share orientation information among the satellite network. Satellites use GPS, IMU and lasers to align with each other, transferring and sharing the accurate absolute and relative orientation information. Our design includes a GPS and IMU navigation data fusion procedure, and an orientation information transfer process which uses lasers and radio frequency links. We propose to use two parallel laser beams to transfer attitude data between satellites. Then we analyze this design by modeling the micronavigation satellite network using an epidemic model. We show that the orientation accuracy of all satellites in the constellation improve using this procedure. We also design the communication protocol and scheduling algorithm as well as the laser targeting and control algorithm. Then, we performed the ground experiments to verify the feasibility of the GPS/IMU data fusion are discussed in the paper.