LAUSR

Abstract This paper investigates the tracking accuracy of an optical telescope system used for satellite tracking and laser ranging applications. The investigated system uses a high precision motion controller and a pointing model based on spherical harmonics to achieve high accuracy. To overcome the limitations due to local pointing model inaccuracies and dynamic effects during tracking, an iterative trajectory learning algorithm is proposed. The implementation, as well as the stability analysis of the proposed concept is presented. Satellite tracking experiments are conducted to verify the accuracy of the proposed system. Utilizing the proposed iterative trajectory learning concept, the tracking error is reduced by a factor of 11 and is ultimately limited by the uncertainty of the orbit prediction.