Lasso Wahba's Problem and Its Analytical Solution for Spacecraft Attitude Determination

Abstract

In this paper, the Lasso formulation of the Wahba's problem is studied for spacecraft attitude determination problem from vector observations. This problem is designed in order to make the attitude solution more regularized and robust. The analytical quaternion solution is derived and is proven to be more continuous than results from previous Wahba's solutions. First, we point out its application in quaternion conversion from rotation matrix. Then, simulation tests are achieved using real motion and simulated three vector observation pairs from a star tracker, a sun sensor and a magnetometer. The results well support the proposed method for attitude determination and verify its effectiveness.