University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Target search methods for space situational awareness

Patel, Mihir Jagdishbhai

Content Files
PATEL-THESIS-2018.pdf

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/101218

Description

Title
Target search methods for space situational awareness
Author(s)
Patel, Mihir Jagdishbhai
Issue Date
2018-04-25
Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)
Ho, Koki
Department of Study
Aerospace Engineering
Discipline
Aerospace Engineering
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
M.S.
Degree Level
Thesis
Date of Ingest
2018-09-04T20:36:53Z
Keyword(s)
  • Space situational awareness
  • tracking
  • target search
Abstract
This work studies methods to detect target in an orbit around the Earth using a space based sensor. Searching for a target among a large set of candidate orbits is a difficult and time consuming problem. Considering orbital dynamics, sensor uncertainties and the initial size of candidate location distribution, it is desirable to develop efficient search techniques. In this work, information-theoretic methods for searching a target in a large probability distribution using a space based sensor is considered. One intuitive approach is to steer the sensor towards regions of high probability density. Alternatively, information-theoretic methods steer the sensor based on metrics of the information gain in the posterior probability distribution. Through simulation, it is shown that information-theoretic search methods produce greater knowledge about probability distribution of the target's orbit. We also present methods to lower the computing expense imposed on the computer on-board a space based sensor. The issue is addressed using data clustering technique called K-means clustering. It is shown that errors resulting from searching the target after clustering is much lower compared to errors resulting from searching targets at the locations of higher probability.
Graduation Semester
2018-05
Type of Resource
text
Permalink
http://hdl.handle.net/2142/101218
Copyright and License Information
Copyright 2018 Mihir Patel

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