Experimental validation of inertia parameters and attitude estimation of uncooperative space targets using solid state LIDAR

This paper presents an experimental activity aimed at assessing performance of techniques for inertia and attitude parameters estimation of an uncooperative but known space target. The adopted experimental set-up includes a scaled-down 3D printed satellite mock-up, a spherical air bearing and a low-cost solid-state LIDAR. The experimental facility also comprises a motion capture system to obtain a benchmark of the pose (position and attitude) parameters and an ad-hoc designed passive balancing system to keep the centre of mass as close as possible to the centre of rotation. The LIDAR-based 3D point clouds, collected while the target rotates on the spherical air-bearing to reproduce the rotational dynamics of an almost-free rigid body, are processed to obtain pose and angular velocity estimate. Those data are used to determine the inertia properties of the target by solving a linear system based on the integral form of Euler equations. Performance and robustness of the algorithm for attitude and inertia properties estimation are assessed considering both the inertia benchmark provided by a high-fidelity CAD model of the target and the pose solution obtained from the motion tracking system and its extrinsic calibration with respect to the LIDAR.