Notational Conventions

The following notational conventions are adopted throughout the code:

  • All scalars are represented by lowercase unbolded letters (\(x\))

  • Overdots on scalars represent differentiation with respect to time:

    \[\dot x \equiv \frac{\mathop{}\!\mathrm{d}{}}{\mathop{}\!\mathrm{d}{t}} \qquad \ddot x \equiv { {\vphantom{\frac{\mathop{}\!\mathrm{d}{^{2}}}{\mathop{}\!\mathrm{d}{t^2}}}}^{\mathcal{}}\!{\frac{\mathop{}\!\mathrm{d}{^{2}}}{\mathop{}\!\mathrm{d}{t^2}}} }x\]
  • All matrices are represented by uppercase unbolded letters (\(A\))

  • All vectors are represented by lowercase bolded letters (\(\mathbf v\)). All vectors are assumed to be Euclidean (\(\mathbb{R}^3\))

  • Unit vectors are represented by lowercase bolded letters with hats (\({\hat{\mathbf{v}}}\) is the unit vector of \(\mathbf v\))

  • Vector norms are denoted by \(\Vert \mathbf v \Vert\) such that \(\mathbf v = \Vert \mathbf v \Vert {\hat{\mathbf{v}}}\)

  • Position vectors are denoted as \(\mathbf r_{B/A}\) indicating that this is the vector pointing from point \(A\) to point \(B\)

  • Reference frames are represented by calligraphic capital letters (\(\mathcal I\)) and defined by a coordinate origin and a set of three mutually orthogonal unit vectors such that \(\mathcal I = ({\hat{\mathbf{e}}}_1, {\hat{\mathbf{e}}}_2, {\hat{\mathbf{e}}}_3)\) implies that \({\hat{\mathbf{e}}}_1\times {\hat{\mathbf{e}}}_2 = {\hat{\mathbf{e}}_3}\). All reference frames are dextral

  • The component representation of any vector \(\mathbf v\) in reference frame \(\mathcal I\) is given by \([\mathbf v]_\mathcal I\) and is assumed to be a (3x1) column matrix

  • Direction cosine matrices (DCMs) are defined as \({{\vphantom{C}}^{\mathcal{B}}\!{C}^{\mathcal{I}}}\) such that:

    \[[\mathbf v]_\mathcal B = {{\vphantom{C}}^{\mathcal{B}}\!{C}^{\mathcal{I}}}[\mathbf v]_\mathcal I\]
  • The inverse of a direction cosine matrix is its transpose and is denoted by switching the order of the superscripts:

    \[\left({{\vphantom{C}}^{\mathcal{B}}\!{C}^{\mathcal{I}}}\right)^{-1} \equiv \left({{\vphantom{C}}^{\mathcal{B}}\!{C}^{\mathcal{I}}}\right)^T = {{\vphantom{C}}^{\mathcal{I}}\!{C}^{\mathcal{B}}}\]
  • Vector derivatives (in time) are frame-dependent. The frame with respect to which the vector is differentiated is denoted by a left-superscript:

    \[{\vphantom{\mathbf v_{P/O}}}^{\mathcal{I}}\!{\mathbf v_{P/O}}= { {\vphantom{\frac{\mathop{}\!\mathrm{d}{}}{\mathop{}\!\mathrm{d}{t}}}}^{\mathcal{I}}\!{\frac{\mathop{}\!\mathrm{d}{}}{\mathop{}\!\mathrm{d}{t}}} }\mathbf{r}_{P/O}\]