Development, testing and selection of attitude determination algorithm for STUDSAT-2

This paper describes development, testing and selection of an attitude determination algorithm for STUDSAT-2 (STUDent SATellite). The algorithms, namely TRIAD, Optimized TRIAD, Davenport's Q and QUEST are considered. For testing, these are coded in MATLAB and then compared on the basis of errors in angle of rotation about Gibbs vector. Least squares criterion is accounted for, by minimization of loss function. Computational efficiency is accessed using stand-alone precompiled optimized codes in embedded C language. A detailed analysis of results obtained by aforementioned means is carried out in selection of the best algorithm for the project.