Smeared star spot location estimation using directional integral method.

Image smearing significantly affects the accuracy of attitude determination of most star sensors. To ensure the accuracy and reliability of a star sensor under image smearing conditions, a novel directional integral method is presented for high-precision star spot location estimation to improve the accuracy of attitude determination. Simulations based on the orbit data of the challenging mini-satellite payload satellite were performed. Simulation results demonstrated that the proposed method exhibits high performance and good robustness, which indicates that the method can be applied effectively.