TY  - JOUR
A1  - Wang, Xiaoliang
A1  - Liu, Xuan
A1  - Xiao, Yun
A1  - Mao, Yue
A1  - Wang, Nan
A1  - Wang, Wei
A1  - Wu, Shufan
A1  - Song, Xiaoyong
A1  - Wang, Dengfeng
A1  - Zhong, Xingwang
A1  - Zhu, Zhu
A1  - Schilling, Klaus
A1  - Damaren, Christopher
T1  - On-orbit verification of RL-based APC calibrations for micrometre level microwave ranging system
JF  - Mathematics
N2  - Micrometre level ranging accuracy between satellites on-orbit relies on the high-precision calibration of the antenna phase center (APC), which is accomplished through properly designed calibration maneuvers batch estimation algorithms currently. However, the unmodeled perturbations of the space dynamic and sensor-induced uncertainty complicated the situation in reality; ranging accuracy especially deteriorated outside the antenna main-lobe when maneuvers performed. This paper proposes an on-orbit APC calibration method that uses a reinforcement learning (RL) process, aiming to provide the high accuracy ranging datum for onboard instruments with micrometre level. The RL process used here is an improved Temporal Difference advantage actor critic algorithm (TDAAC), which mainly focuses on two neural networks (NN) for critic and actor function. The output of the TDAAC algorithm will autonomously balance the APC calibration maneuvers amplitude and APC-observed sensitivity with an object of maximal APC estimation accuracy. The RL-based APC calibration method proposed here is fully tested in software and on-ground experiments, with an APC calibration accuracy of less than 2 mrad, and the on-orbit maneuver data from  11–12 April 2022, which achieved 1–1.5 mrad calibration accuracy after RL training. The proposed RL-based APC algorithm may extend to prove mass calibration scenes with actions feedback to attitude determination and control system (ADCS), showing flexibility of spacecraft payload applications in the future.
KW  - reinforcement learning
KW  - antenna phase center calibration
KW  - K band ranging (KBR)
KW  - micrometre level microwave ranging
KW  - MSC: 49M37
KW  - MSC: 65K05
KW  - MSC: 90C30
KW  - MSC: 90C40
Y1  - 2023
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-303970
SN  - 2227-7390
VL  - 11
IS  - 4
ER  -