Remote attitude measurement tecniques

A probabilistic approach is developed to treat practical problems in physical geometry where the necessary data are measured by separated sensors. Remote measurement of the attitude of these sensor's own local coordinate system into its equivalent description in a common coordinate system. A technique is presented to determine the relative attitude of remotely located sensors based upon each sensor measuring the same set of two physical vectors. Sensors measure physical vectors in terms of probabilistic vectors. The attitude of the sensor is expressed in terms of a probabilitic matrix. The engineering considerations for implementing a remote attitude measurement, ReAtMent, system are presented including the development of an error budget necessary to insure that the ReAtMent system performs to the required accuracy. An experimental section is presented using an electro-optical sensor whose attitude is measured in terms of a probabilistic matrix.