Attitude determination software for a star sensor

Abstract: There are a number of universities which are developing pico and nano
satellite for research and studies and will continue to increase in the
future.
Most of them also have specific attitude determination methods and associated
sensors, but still a very accurate attitude determination sensor system is
not available for small satellites other than sun sensors and magnetometers.
Considering the accuracy and performance star sensor is the best choice, but
the major drawbacks are the cost, effort and weight of the star sensor. The
objective of the thesis work is to develop attitude determination software
for
a small low cost star sensor which can be used in pico and nano satellites.
Modern miniaturization of electronics and hardware and low cost due to mass
production has paved new way to develop a miniature sensor for small
satellites
in university projects. The work is mainly concentrated on developing a
prototype software for the current star sensor project undergoing at the
University of Wuerzburg, known as STELLAR. The prototype software is build
in MATLAB 7 on a normal PC and tested for publicly available various star
images and generated images.