Nonlinear size constrained attitude estimation for space objects from ISAR image sequences

doi:10.23919/JSEE.2025.000003

Journal of Systems Engineering and Electronics ›› 2025, Vol. 36 ›› Issue (6): 1465-1476.doi: 10.23919/JSEE.2025.000003

• DEFENCE ELECTRONICS TECHNOLOGY • Previous Articles

Nonlinear size constrained attitude estimation for space objects from ISAR image sequences

Chengzeng CHEN¹^,²^,³(), Dan LIU²^,³(), Jiandong NIU²(), Xiaolun JIANG³(), Yaobing LU²(), Xiaojian XU¹^,*()

¹ School of Electronics and Information Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China
² Beijing Institute of Radio Measurement, Beijing 100854, China
³ Pinghu Labortory, Pinghu 314200, China

Received:2024-08-23 Accepted:2024-12-04 Online:2025-12-18 Published:2026-01-07
Contact: Xiaojian XU E-mail:chenchengzeng66@163.com;liudan_nicole@263.net;niujiandong588@sina.com;jiang-xiaolun@qq.com;luyaobing65@163.com;xiaojianxu@buaa.edu.cn
About author:CHEN Chengzeng was born in 1987. He received his M.S. degree from Xidian University in 2013. He is currently working toward his Ph.D. degree in Beihang University. His research interests are radar signal processing and radar imaging. E-mail: chenchengzeng66@163.com
LIU Dan was born in 1974. She received her B.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Beijing Institute of Technology in 1996 and 2001. Her research interests are radar signal processing and radar imaging. E-mail: liudan_nicole@263.net
NIU Jiandong was born in 1988. He received his M.S. degree from Xidian University in 2013. He is currently a senior engineer at the Beijing Institute of Radio Measurement. His rearch interests are radar signal processing and radar imaging. E-mail: niujiandong588@sina.com
JIANG Xiaolun was born in 1996. He received his M.S. degree from Beijing Institute of Technology in 2022. He is currently an engineer at the Beijing Institute of Radio Measurement. His rearch interests are small celestial body parameter estimation and optical navigation. E-mail: jiang-xiaolun@qq.com
LU Yaobing was born in 1965. He received his Ph.D. degree in communication and information system from Beihang University in 2014. He is currently a researcher at the Beijing Institute of Radio Measurement. His rearch interests are radar signal processing and target detection. E-mail: luyaobing65@163.com
XU Xiaojian was born in 1963. He received his Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2002. He is currently a professor with the Beihang University. His rearch interests are radar signal processing and radar imaging. E-mail: xiaojianxu@buaa.edu.cn

Abstract

Abstract:

Exact estimation of space object attitude parameters is a great challenge. The effectiveness of conventional attitude estimation approaches based on target sizes suffers a significant reduction when occlusion exists. This paper proposes an innovative approach to estimate the attitude parameters for space objects based on inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) image sequences. The formulation for nonlinear size constraints (NSC) is developed by accounting for the characteristics of object size variation in ISAR image sequences. The multi-start framework for global optimization and the Broyden-Fletcher-Goldfarb-Shanno (BFGS) based quasi-Newton iterative method are combined with and used for more accurate estimation of space object’s attitude parameters. Furthermore, the Cramer-Rao lower bound (CRLB) of attitude parameter estimates is derived. Comparative experiments demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed method.

Key words: attitude parameter estimation, inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) image, nonlinear size constraint (NSC), Cramer-Rao lower bound (CRLB)

Chengzeng CHEN, Dan LIU, Jiandong NIU, Xiaolun JIANG, Yaobing LU, Xiaojian XU. Nonlinear size constrained attitude estimation for space objects from ISAR image sequences[J]. Journal of Systems Engineering and Electronics, 2025, 36(6): 1465-1476.

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References 37

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Parameter	Value
Inclination/(°)	97
Right ascension of ascending	238.5513
Eccentricity	0.001528
Argument of perigee	122.4300
Mean anomaly	8.1208
Apogee height/km	476
Perigee height/km	473
Revolutions per day	15.3
Main body’s size/m	8
Solar panel’s size/m	16
Simulation date	2023/9/6

Parameter	Value
Center of frequency/GHz	9
Bandwidth/GHz	2
Pulse width/μs	100
PRF/Hz	100
Radar location	[120 N,39 E,0 m]

Parameter	Value
Number of ISAR image	18
SNR of ISAR image/dB	20
Image resolution/m	0.075×0.075

Parameter	True value	Proposed method with NSC		PSO method		JRS-BFGS method
Parameter	True value	Estimated	Error	Estimated	Error	Estimated	Error
$ \alpha $	−90	−85.20	4.8	−79.95	10.05	−79.09	10.91
$ \beta $	0	−0.15	−0.15	−0.98	−0.98	−1.43	−1.43
$ \gamma $	90	90.25	0.25	91.27	1.27	95.29	5.29

Parameter	True value	Proposed method with NSC		PSO method		JRS-BFGS method
Parameter	True value	Estimated	Error	Estimated	Error	Estimated	Error
$ \alpha $	26	25.35	−0.65	23.14	−2.86	14.50	−11.50
$ \beta $	0	1.04	1.04	2.10	2.10	3.39	3.39
$ \gamma $	90	89.03	−0.97	87.85	−2.15	87.50	−2.50

Nonlinear size constrained attitude estimation for space objects from ISAR image sequences

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