Mon Oct 13, F. Flechtner
• Sorted by Date • Sorted by Last Name of First Author •
Hou, Cong, Jin, Xiaojun, Xiao, Tong, Xu, Zhaobin, and Jin, Zhonghe, 2025. Toward GNSS real-time relative orbit determination for satellite formations using adaptively robust factor graph optimization. Advances in Space Research, 76(1):429–442, doi:10.1016/j.asr.2025.04.031.
• from the NASA Astrophysics Data System • by the DOI System •
@ARTICLE{2025AdSpR..76..429H,
author = {{Hou}, Cong and {Jin}, Xiaojun and {Xiao}, Tong and {Xu}, Zhaobin and {Jin}, Zhonghe},
title = "{Toward GNSS real-time relative orbit determination for satellite formations using adaptively robust factor graph optimization}",
journal = {Advances in Space Research},
keywords = {Satellite formations, Real-time relative orbit determination, GNSS, Factor Graph Optimization, Sliding window},
year = 2025,
month = jul,
volume = {76},
number = {1},
pages = {429-442},
abstract = "{Satellite formations have been widely applied in scientific missions
such as Earth gravity field measurements, where real-time
relative orbit determination (RTROD) plays a critical role in
ensuring the success of the mission. Factor graph optimization
(FGO), which addresses nonlinear problems through multiple
iterations and re-linearization, has recently gained popularity
due to its flexibility and superior robustness in challenging
environments such as urban canyons, compared to the Extended
Kalman Filter (EKF). In this paper, we propose an FGO-based
RTROD, which is realized by a priori factor constructed by a
sliding window in combination with Schur complement. We
introduce the receiver-differenced time-differenced (RDTD)
carrier phase in FGO to simultaneously eliminate ambiguity
effects and GNSS satellite orbit and clock errors, which is
challenging to achieve for EKF-based methods under real-time
constraints. In this paper, we newly propose an adaptively
robust FGO (ARFGO) scheme, which uses equivalent weights to
mitigate the impact of a maximum outlier in the current
iteration, introduces an adaptive factor based on kinematic
RTROD solutions and predictions to address relative dynamics
anomalies, such as unknown satellite maneuvers, accidental
collisions, and gas leaks. Experimental results based on GRACE-
FO data show that the proposed FGO-based RTROD achieves higher
accuracy compared to the basic EKF implementation under the same
measurement conditions. The runtime of the RDTD carrier phase-
based FGO is reduced by 73.4 \% compared to the FGO based on the
receiver-differenced carrier phase, demonstrating significant
computational efficiency improvements. Furthermore, the proposed
equivalent weight effectively reduces the FGO error from 4.125
cm to 3.795 cm. During satellite maneuvers, schemes without the
adaptive factor exhibit meter-level deviations, while the
adaptive factor can stabilize the maximum positioning error
within 2 dm and the overall error to approximately 5 cm.
Validation from the K-band ranging (KBR) system, a high-
precision inter-satellite ranging system, demonstrates that the
along-track direction accuracy of the proposed ARFGO maintains a
precision of approximately 3 cm even in the presence of
satellite maneuvers.}",
doi = {10.1016/j.asr.2025.04.031},
adsurl = {https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2025AdSpR..76..429H},
adsnote = {Provided by the SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System}
}
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