Device for determining the attitude of a carrier, and associated system for assisting with the piloting of a carrier and determination method

A device for determining the attitude of a carrier, the carrier comprising a GNSS receiver apt to receive GNSS signals from one or a plurality of antennas arranged in known positions with respect to the carrier and defining an apparent phase center, the GNSS receiver being apt to supply an observable value determined from the received GNSS signals;

• the determination device comprising:
• a movement generation module configured for generating a movement of the apparent phase center according to a predetermined control law;
• a control module configured for determining the control law;
• a determination module configured for determining an absolute orientation of a vector of interest from at least one observable value supplied by the GNSS receiver and from the control law determined by the control module;
• wherein the determination module is further configured for determining at least one component of the attitude of the carrier, from the absolute orientation of the determined vector of interest;
• wherein the movement generation module is configured to generate the movement of the apparent phase center by:
• (i) controlling at least one mechanical actuator of the carrier and/or of at least one antenna to physically displace the apparent phase center according to the control law, or
• (ii) controlling an electronic radio-frequency multiplexer having a plurality of antenna inputs and a single output, the output being connected to the antenna assigned by the control law;
• and
• wherein when the observable value is a measurement of the resolved velocity of the carrier, the vector of interest is determined from the following relationship:
• δV=b(t)·(dX,dY,dZ)T
• where
• δV is a resolved velocity deviation vector;
• b(t) is a function dependent on the control law;
• (dX,dY,dZ)T is the vector of interest.