Approximation of clock synchronization error in sounding rocket localization

Abstract

This thesis presents an analysis of student team PR4space’s system designed to reconstruct the location of sounding rockets with centimeter scale accuracy. PR4space is experimenting with using long-baseline radio interferometry to reconstruct the rocket location. However this method poses the problem of time synchronization errors between different receivers making tracking of the rocket impossible. In this thesis the problem of location reconstruction is described, the effect of time synchronisation errors is presented and a way of approximating and compensating for these time synchronization errors is proposed. An algorithm is designed to correct for this time synchronisation error and the algorithm has been found successful for simulated data including various sources of errors. Using this algorithm PR4space is able to use long-baseline interferometry to track the rocket, which was impossible before. Expected phase measurement errors likely result in localization errors on the scale of tens of meters instead of centimeters. Further improvement of the system is necessary, with a few ideas being proposed in the discussion.