Orbit Modeling for Simultaneous Tracking and Navigation using LEO Satellite Signals

Joshua J. Morales, Joe Khalife, Ulices Santa Cruz, and Zaher M. Kassas

Peer Reviewed

Abstract:	Low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite propagation models are studied and compared for use in an extended Kalman filter (EKF)-based simultaneous tracking and navigation (STAN) framework. Three propagation models are compared: Simplified General Perturbation 4 (SGP4), two-body, and two-body with the second gravitational zonal coefficient J2. Each model is evaluated by studying its open-loop propagation error. The purpose of the evaluation is to select a model with small open-loop propagation error and low model complexity. The two-body with J2 model is selected to possess a good tradeoff between propagation error and model complexity. Experimental results are presented demonstrating an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) flying for 160 seconds, the last 45 seconds of which are without GNSS signals. Three navigation frameworks are compared: (i) a GNSS-aided inertial navigation system (INS), and a LEO-aided INS STAN with two Orbcomm LEO satellites utilizing the two-body model (ii) without J2 and (iii) with J2. It is shown that the 3-D position RMSE and final position errors with the unaided INS are 73.1 m and 162.6 m, respectively; the 3-D position RMSE and final position errors with the LEO-aided INS STAN without J2 are 13.4 m and 26.1 m, respectively; and 3-D position RMSE and final position errors with the LEO-aided INS STAN with J2 are 5.3 m and 5.4 m, respectively.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 32nd International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS+ 2019) September 16 - 20, 2019 Hyatt Regency Miami Miami, Florida
Pages:	2090 - 2099
Cite this article:	Morales, Joshua J., Khalife, Joe, Cruz, Ulices Santa, Kassas, Zaher M., "Orbit Modeling for Simultaneous Tracking and Navigation using LEO Satellite Signals," Proceedings of the 32nd International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS+ 2019), Miami, Florida, September 2019, pp. 2090-2099. https://doi.org/10.33012/2019.17029
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