基于自然偏振光的自主导航新方法研究进展

Research Progress of Polarized Skylight Navigation

利用自然偏振光进行导航的思想来源于地球上的蜜蜂、蚂蚁等生物的导航方式,人们借鉴这些生物的导航方法,研究设计了偏振光导航设备,用于船舶、飞机、车辆与机器人等地面交通工具和运动物体的实时导航。介绍了大气偏振光的基本模式,以及生物利用偏振光导航的基本原理,综述了目前利用偏振光进行大气层内运动体导航的研究进展,以及偏振光导航研究的基本内容,并且讨论了将自然偏振光导航方法推广到大气层外,进行航天器空间自主姿态确定与自主导航的优点与发展前景。

The idea of using skylight polarization in navigation is learned form animals such as ant and bee. Polarization compass is designed to provide navigation information for moving vehicles on the ground such as cars, ships and mobile robots and three dimensional space vehicles such as airplanes. This paper introduces the basic polarization pattern of the skylight and the basic principle of the insets navigation using this pattern. The research progress in the field of artificial polarization navigation for moving vehicles in the atmosphere is summarized. The key research issues of polarization navigation are analyzed. The idea of using polarization from the atmosphere in satellite navigation is presented. The possibility and future of using polarization for satellite autonomous navigation to provide attitude and orbit information is discussed.