High frequency attitude determination of micro satellites based on FPGA

Abstract

The accuracy and speed of satellite attitude calculation algorithms are one of the key factors affecting the performance of satellite attitude control. This article proposes a high-performance attitude calculation algorithm for micro satellites based on Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). This algorithm is designed and simplified based on the parallel characteristics and abundant computing resources of FPGA. The algorithm fully utilizes the parallel computing power of FPGA and designs a multi-stage pipeline for complex matrix operations in Kalman filtering. It can simultaneously complete data collection and final attitude determination result output, greatly improving the output frequency of attitude information and reducing output delay. The experimental results show that compared to traditional embedded processors, FPGA based attitude calculation has significant advantages in terms of speed.