Nonlinear Filter for Orbit Determination

Orbit determination problems have been interest of many researchers for long time. Due to the high nonlinearity of the equation of motion and the measurement model, it is necessary to linearize the both equations. To avoid linearization, the filter based on Fokker-Planck equation is designed. with the extended Kalman filter update mechanism, in which the associated Fokker-Planck equation was solved efficiently and accurately via discrete quadrature and the measurement update was done through the extended Kalman filter update mechanism. This filter based on the DQMOM and the EKF update is applied to the orbit determination problem with appropriate modification to mitigate the filter smugness. Unlike the extended Kalman filter, the hybrid filter based on the DQMOM and the EKF update does not require the burdensome evaluation of the Jacobian matrix and Gaussian assumption for the system, and can still provide more accurate estimations of the state than those of the extended Kalman filter especially when measurements are sparse. Simulation results indicate that the advantages of the hybrid filter based on the DQMOM and the EKF update make it a promising alternative to the extended Kalman filter for orbit estimation problems.