{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,2]],"date-time":"2026-06-02T22:28:25Z","timestamp":1780439305106,"version":"3.54.1"},"reference-count":17,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"6","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2019,3,22]],"date-time":"2019-03-22T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1553212800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sensors"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Non-planar sun sensors can determine solar orientation by existing photodiodes or by reusing solar panels, without increasing the size and mass of spacecraft. However, a limiting factor for the improvement of the accuracy of orientation lies in the lack of a detailed performance assessment on interference suppression. In this paper, a new method that determines solar orientation in the frequency domain is developed for regular pyramid sun sensors, which are formed by regular pyramid arrays. Furthermore, two formulations are established to evaluate the errors of the solar azimuth and elevation angle in solar orientation determination based on the newly proposed frequency-domain method. With these formulations of performance evaluation, we discover the mathematical relationship between the interference spectrum, array geometry, solar irradiance, solar azimuth or elevation angle, and the error in solar orientation determination for the first time. This reveals that the internal interference from the detection system can be completely suppressed in solar orientation determination, and the constant interference can be eliminated in the estimation of solar azimuth angle. Simulation and field experiments validated the effectiveness of the new orientation method, error formulations and performance of each interference source.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/s19061424","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2019,3,25]],"date-time":"2019-03-25T06:56:52Z","timestamp":1553497012000},"page":"1424","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":6,"title":["Performance in Solar Orientation Determination for Regular Pyramid Sun Sensors"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"19","author":[{"given":"Jiang","family":"Wang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Communication and Information Engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, Sichuan, China"},{"name":"School of Electronic Engineering, Chengdu University of Information Technology, Chengdu 610225, Sichuan, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yongchao","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Communication and Information Engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, Sichuan, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yin","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Communication and Information Engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, Sichuan, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yulin","family":"Huang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Communication and Information Engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, Sichuan, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jianyu","family":"Yang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Communication and Information Engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, Sichuan, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yuming","family":"Du","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Electronic Engineering, Chengdu University of Information Technology, Chengdu 610225, Sichuan, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2019,3,22]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"055104","DOI":"10.1088\/1361-6501\/aa61b5","article-title":"A photodiode based miniature sun sensor","volume":"28","author":"Lu","year":"2017","journal-title":"Meas. Sci. Technol."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"120","DOI":"10.1016\/j.actaastro.2012.02.001","article-title":"The attitude determination system of the RAX satellite","volume":"75","author":"Springmann","year":"2012","journal-title":"Acta Astronaut."},{"key":"ref_3","first-page":"1631","article-title":"Sun sensor navigation for planetary rovers: theory and field testing, aerospace and electronic systems","volume":"47","author":"Furgale","year":"2011","journal-title":"IEEE Trans."},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"4423","DOI":"10.1109\/JSEN.2014.2331319","article-title":"A hemispherical sun sensor for orientation and geolocation","volume":"14","author":"Barnes","year":"2014","journal-title":"IEEE Sens. J."},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"175","DOI":"10.1016\/j.autcon.2016.10.009","article-title":"Dual-axis sun tracker sensor based on tetrahedron geometry","volume":"73","author":"Away","year":"2016","journal-title":"Autom. Constr."},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"56","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ymssp.2016.05.004","article-title":"A highly accurate wireless digital sun sensor based on profile detecting and detector multiplexing technologies","volume":"82","author":"Wei","year":"2017","journal-title":"Mech. Syst. Signal Process."},{"key":"ref_7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"075003","DOI":"10.1063\/1.4958696","article-title":"Micro digital sun sensor with linear detector","volume":"87","author":"Fan","year":"2016","journal-title":"Rev. Sci. Instrum."},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Abhilash, M., Kumar, S., Sandya, S., Sridevi, T.V., and Prabhamani, H.R. (2014, January 29\u201330). Implementation of the MEMS-based dual-axis sun sensor for nano satellites. Proceedings of the Metrology for Aerospace, Benevento, Italy.","DOI":"10.1109\/MetroAeroSpace.2014.6865918"},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"489","DOI":"10.1049\/iet-smt.2016.0352","article-title":"Sun sensor using a nanosatellites solar panels by means of time-division multiplexing","volume":"11","author":"Lu","year":"2017","journal-title":"IET Sci. Meas. Technol."},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"475","DOI":"10.1007\/s11431-012-5082-4","article-title":"An orientation method and analysis of optical radiation sources based on polyhedron and parallel incident light","volume":"56","author":"Wang","year":"2013","journal-title":"Sci. China Technol. Sci."},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.2514\/1.G000175","article-title":"On-orbit calibration of photodiodes for attitude determination","volume":"37","author":"Springmann","year":"2014","journal-title":"J. Guid. Control Dyn."},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"243","DOI":"10.1016\/j.sna.2017.05.022","article-title":"Fabrication, characterization, and error mitigation of non-flat sun sensor","volume":"261","author":"Yousefian","year":"2017","journal-title":"Sens. Actuators A Phys."},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"828","DOI":"10.2514\/1.61468","article-title":"Optimization of directional sensor orientation with application to sun sensing","volume":"37","author":"Springmann","year":"2014","journal-title":"J. Guid. Control Dyn."},{"key":"ref_14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1673","DOI":"10.1109\/JSEN.2017.2655000","article-title":"Optimal design and simulation of sensor arrays for solar motion estimation","volume":"17","author":"Yousefian","year":"2017","journal-title":"IEEE Sens. J."},{"key":"ref_15","unstructured":"Wan, B.Z., Mo, Y.Q., and Yang, Y. (2008). Modern Meteorological Radiometric Technique, China Meteorological Press."},{"key":"ref_16","unstructured":"Oppenheim, A.V., Willsky, A.S., and Nawab, S.H. (1997). Signals and Systems Second Edition, Pearson Education."},{"key":"ref_17","first-page":"27","article-title":"Improvement in the astronomical parameters computation for solar radiation observation","volume":"12","author":"Wang","year":"1991","journal-title":"Acta Energ. Sol. Sin."}],"container-title":["Sensors"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1424-8220\/19\/6\/1424\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T12:40:04Z","timestamp":1760186404000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1424-8220\/19\/6\/1424"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2019,3,22]]},"references-count":17,"journal-issue":{"issue":"6","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2019,3]]}},"alternative-id":["s19061424"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/s19061424","relation":{},"ISSN":["1424-8220"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1424-8220","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2019,3,22]]}}}