In-orbit relative navigation between a networked swarm of centimeter-scale femto-spacecraft would add considerable value to a range of space mission concepts and applications, such as for multipoint sensing and distributed sparse aperture interferometry. For a swarm of networked femto-spacecraft, relative position determination would be possible by inferring coarse range estimates from the received signal strength indication associated with the communication link between swarm members. This is particularly advantageous for highly resource-constrained devices. In this paper, algorithms for swarm relative positioning using interspacecraft range estimates are presented that can be applied to centralized, decentralized, and distributed network configurations. Relative navigation filters for initial relative orbit determination and state estimation are presented for femto-spacecraft swarm deployment and dispersal scenarios. The algorithms presented could also find use in terrestrial applications, in static and dynamic wireless sensor networks.

网络化的厘米级毫微微航天器群之间的在轨相对导航将为一系列空间任务概念和应用增加相当大的价值，例如多点传感和分布式稀疏孔径干涉测量。对于一组联网的毫微微航天器，可以通过从与集群成员之间的通信链路相关联的接收信号强度指示推断粗略的距离估计来确定相对位置。这对于高度资源受限的设备特别有利。在本文中，提出了使用航天器距离估计进行群相对定位的算法，该算法可应用于集中式、分散式和分布式网络配置。针对毫微微航天器群部署和分散场景，提出了用于初始相对轨道确定和状态估计的相对导航滤波器。提出的算法也可以用于地面应用、静态和动态无线传感器网络。