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Attitude Determination

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Encyclopedia of Geodesy

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Definition

Attitude determination . The process of determining the orientation of an object with respect to a reference frame.

Introduction

The characterization of an object’s position in space, be it a vehicle or a measuring instrument, requires the knowledge of both its location and attitude (viz. orientation) with respect to a reference frame.

Attitude determination is a prerequisite for a number of applications that necessitate knowing the orientation in order to execute a task. These include autonomously navigating space, air, sea, and land vehicles, or pointing instruments at desired targets, such in spaceborne and airborne altimetry, satellite laser ranging, radar interferometry, and optical tracking.

The attitude of an object is formally identified by the relative orientation between a frame of coordinates attached to the object and a reference frame (cf. Figure 1). The orientation is described through a set of real-valued variables known as attitude parameters...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Communications and Navigation, Technische Universität München, Theresienstraße 90, Gebäude N4, 4. Stock, 80333, Munich, Germany

    Gabriele Giorgi

Authors
  1. Gabriele Giorgi
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Correspondence to Gabriele Giorgi .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Geodetic Institute, University of Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany

    Erik Grafarend

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Giorgi, G. (2015). Attitude Determination. In: Grafarend, E. (eds) Encyclopedia of Geodesy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02370-0_2-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02370-0_2-1

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