Generating Low-Earth Orbit Satellite Attitude Maneuver Profiles Using Deep Neural Networks

To perform Earth observations, low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites require attitude maneuvers, which can be classified into two types: maintenance of a target-pointing attitude and maneuvering between target-pointing attitudes. The former depends on the observation target, while the latter has nonlinear characteristics and must consider various conditions. Therefore, generating an optimal reference attitude profile is difficult. Mission performance and satellite antenna position-to-ground communication are also determined by the maneuver profile between the target-pointing attitudes. Generating a reference maneuver profile with small errors before target pointing can enhance the quality of the observation images and increase the maximum possible number of missions and accuracy of ground contact. Therefore, herein we proposed a technique for optimizing the maneuver profile between target-pointing attitudes based on data-based learning. We used a deep neural network based on bidirectional long short-term memory to model the quaternion profiles of LEO satellites. This model was used to predict the maneuvers between target-pointing attitudes. After predicting the attitude profile, it was differentiated to obtain the time and angular acceleration profiles. The optimal maneuver reference profile was obtained by Bayesian-based optimization. To verify the performance of the proposed technique, the results of maneuvers in the 2–68° range were analyzed.