Detection of sub-kilometer craters in high resolution planetary images using shape and texture features

Counting craters is a paramount tool of planetary analysis because it provides relative dating of planetary surfaces. Dating surfaces with high spatial resolution requires counting a very large number of small, sub-kilometer size craters. Exhaustive manual surveys of such craters over extensive regions are impractical, sparking interest in designing crater detection algorithms (CDAs). As a part of our effort to design a CDA, which is robust and practical for planetary research analysis, we propose a crater detection approach that utilizes both shape and texture features to identify efficiently sub-kilometer craters in high resolution panchromatic images. First, a mathematical morphology-based shape analysis is used to identify regions in an image that may contain craters; only those regions - crater candidates - are the subject of further processing. Second, image texture features in combination with the boosting ensemble supervised learning algorithm are used to accurately classify previously identified candidates into craters and non-craters. The design of the proposed CDA is described and its performance is evaluated using a high resolution image of Mars for which sub-kilometer craters have been manually identified. The overall detection rate of the proposed CDA is 81%, the branching factor is 0.14, and the overall quality factor is 72%. This performance is a significant improvement over the previous CDA based exclusively on the shape features. The combination of performance level and computational efficiency offered by this CDA makes it attractive for practical application.     

A new approach based on crater detection and matching for visual navigation in planetary landing

This paper provides an approach of crater detection and matching to visual navigation in planetary landing missions. The approach aims to detect craters on the planetary surface and match them to a landmark database during the descent phase of a planetary landing mission. Firstly an image region pairing method is proposed to detect the crater by using an image region feature detector. Then a WTA-rule is adopted to match the detected crater to the crater in database. To further reduce the false matching rate, an efficient method for reducing false matches using parameters of crater in 3-D database is proposed. Real images of planetary terrain and a semi-physical planetary landing simulation platform are utilized to test the performance of the approach, simulation results show the proposed approach is able to match the required number of craters to the database for pin-point planetary landing with a low rate of false detection and false matching, which will lead to an improved planetary landing precision.     

A machine learning approach to crater detection from topographic data

Craters are distinctive features on the surfaces of most terrestrial planets. Craters reveal the relative ages of surface units and provide information on surface geology. Extracting craters is one of the fundamental tasks in planetary research. Although many automated crater detection algorithms have been developed to exact craters from image or topographic data, most of them are applicable only in particular regions, and only a few can be widely used, especially in complex surface settings. In this study, we present a machine learning approach to crater detection from topographic data. This approach includes two steps: detecting square regions which contain one crater with the use of a boosting algorithm and delineating the rims of the crater in each square region by local terrain analysis and circular Hough transform. A new variant of Haar-like features (scaled Haar-like features) is proposed and combined with traditional Haar-like features and local binary pattern features to enhance the performance of the classifier. Experimental results with the use of Mars topographic data demonstrate that the developed approach can significantly decrease the false positive detection rate while maintaining a relatively high true positive detection rate even in challenging sites.     

一种基于自动特征学习的陨石坑区域检测算法

基于陨石坑的视觉导航技术成为一种新颖的高精度空间探测自主导航方式，如何从导航图像中精确地提取陨石坑区域是实现基于陨石坑视觉导航的首要条件。针对这一问题，根据陨石坑导航图像特点，提出了一种基于自动特征学习的陨石坑区域检测算法。首先，基于最大稳定极值区域检测算法提取陨石坑候选区域；其次，利用卷积神经网络（CNN）自动学习提取候选区域的特征；最后，通过支持向量机（SVM）实现候选区域的精确分类，得到真实的陨石坑区域。大量的仿真实验表明:与传统的基于人工特征的陨石坑区域检测算法相比，提出的基于自动特征学习的陨石坑区域检测算法具有更高的检测精度和更好的鲁棒性，在通用火星表面陨石坑数据集上，所提算法的F₁度量指标较于传统算法高出8%，可以广泛地应用于基于陨石坑的视觉导航算法中的陨石坑区域提取，为基于陨石坑视觉导航算法提供精确的导航路标输入。      

Integrated method for crater detection from topography and optical images and the new PH9224GT catalogue of Phobos impact craters

In a large majority of lunar and planetary surface images, impact craters are the most abundant geological features. Therefore, it is not surprising that crater detection algorithms (CDAs) are one of the most studied subjects of image processing and analysis in lunar and planetary science. In this work we are proposing an Integrated CDA, consisting of: (1) utilization of DEM (digital elevation map)-based CDA; (2) utilization of an optical-based CDA; (3) re-projection of used datasets and crater coordinates from normal to rotated view and back; (4) correction of the brightness and contrast of a used optical image; and (5) tile generation for the optical-based CDA and an assembling of results with an elimination of multiple detections, in combination with a pyramid approach down to the resolution of the available DEM image; and (6) a final integration of the results of DEM-based and optical-based CDAs, including a removal of duplicates. The proposed CDA is applied to one specific asteroid-like body, the small Martian moon Phobos. The experimental evaluation of the proposed CDA is done by a manual verification of crater-candidates and a search for uncatalogued craters. The evaluation has shown that the proposed CDA was used successfully for cataloging Phobos craters. The major result of this paper is the PH9224GT – currently the most complete global catalogue of the 9224 Phobos craters. The possible applications of the new catalogue are: (1) age estimations for any selected location; and (2) comparison/evaluation of the different chronology and production functions for Phobos. This confirms the practical applicability of the new Integrated CDA – an additional result of this paper, which can be used in order to considerably extend the current crater catalogues.     

Hybrid method for crater detection based on topography reconstruction from optical images and the new LU78287GT catalogue of Lunar impact craters

Impact craters are ubiquitous and well-studied structures of high geological relevance on the surfaces of the Earth’s Moon, the terrestrial planets, the asteroids and the satellites of the outer planets. Therefore, it is not surprising that crater detection algorithms (CDAs) are one of the most studied subjects of image processing and analysis in lunar and planetary science. In this paper we are proposing a Hybrid CDA: a modified DEM (digital elevation map) reconstruction method used as a step in an existing CDA based on Hough transform. The new Hybrid CDA consists of: (1) reconstruction of topography from optical images using a shape from shading approach; (2) utilization of the DEM-based CDA; (3) correction of brightness and contrast of optical images used in order to be more suitable for evaluation of detections. An additional result of this work is a new method for evaluation of topography reconstruction algorithms, using a DEM-based CDA and an earlier approach for evaluation of CDAs. The new Hybrid CDA was tested using two Chandrayaan-1 Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M³) images and two excerpts of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) Wide Angle Camera (WAC) global optical image mosaic. As a result, the number of craters inside these four regions increased considerably from 1754 (as available in the previous LU60645GT catalogue) to 19 396 craters (as available in the resulting new LU78287GT catalogue). This confirmed the practical applicability of the new Hybrid CDA, which can be used in order to considerably extend current crater catalogues.     

Advanced fractal approach for unsupervised classification of SAR images

Unsupervised classification of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images is the alternative approach when no or minimum apriori information about the image is available. Therefore, an attempt has been made to develop an unsupervised classification scheme for SAR images based on textural information in present paper. For extraction of textural features two properties are used viz. fractal dimension D and Moran’s I. Using these indices an algorithm is proposed for contextual classification of SAR images. The novelty of the algorithm is that it implements the textural information available in SAR image with the help of two texture measures viz. D and I. For estimation of D, the Two Dimensional Variation Method (2DVM) has been revised and implemented whose performance is compared with another method, i.e., Triangular Prism Surface Area Method (TPSAM). It is also necessary to check the classification accuracy for various window sizes and optimize the window size for best classification. This exercise has been carried out to know the effect of window size on classification accuracy. The algorithm is applied on four SAR images of Hardwar region, India and classification accuracy has been computed. A comparison of the proposed algorithm using both fractal dimension estimation methods with the K-Means algorithm is discussed. The maximum overall classification accuracy with K-Means comes to be 53.26% whereas overall classification accuracy with proposed algorithm is 66.16% for TPSAM and 61.26% for 2DVM.     

基于BoF模型的多特征融合纹理图像分类

针对特征词袋（BoF）模型缺乏空间和几何信息,对纹理图像内容表达不明显等问题,提出一种基于BoF模型的多特征融合纹理分类算法。将灰度梯度共生矩阵（GGCM）和尺度不变特征转换（SIFT）融合特征作为纹理图像的区域特征描述,通过动态权重鉴别能量分析进行最优参数特征选择,并用BoF量化纹理特征,使用支持向量机对图像进行训练和预测,得出分类结果。实验结果表明,本文算法对有旋转扭曲的纹理、边缘模糊纹理、有光照变化的纹理及杂乱纹理等均能取得较好的分类效果,相对于传统BoF模型及凹凸划分（CCP）方法等算法在UIUC纹理库上的分类正确率均有不同程度的提高,平均分类正确率分别提高12.8%和7.9%,说明本文算法针对纹理图像分类具有较高的精度和较好的鲁棒性。      

基于光学图像的撞击坑识别研究综述

当前,随着深空探测研究工作的需要,将信息科学的图像处理、模式识别技术应用到空间探测领域成为必然。基于光学图像的撞击坑自主检测技术就是将信息科学的图像处理技术应用到空间科学研究中的一个很好例证,近年来得到了各国学者的重视。本文针对这一领域的相关研究进行了介绍与分析。首先,对这一技术的研究意义从地质学、天体表面结构和特征数据库建设、探测器导航三个角度加以说明;其次,详细阐述了该技术的研究现状,简要介绍了其中一些经典算法,并将相关算法分为三类:全自主检测算法、半自主检测算法和组合检测算法;最后,提出了该技术研究所面临的难点和未来研究方向与应用空间,以及介绍了作者在这一方面的研究进展。     

Development and testing of a statistical texture model for land cover classification of the Black Sea region with MODIS imagery

A statistical model is proposed for analysis of the texture of land cover types for global and regional land cover classification by using texture features extracted by multiresolution image analysis techniques. It consists of four novel indices representing second-order texture, which are calculated after wavelet decomposition of an image and after texture extraction by a new approach that makes use of a four-pixel texture unit. The model was applied to four satellite images of the Black Sea region, obtained by Terra/MODIS and Aqua/MODIS at different spatial resolution. In single texture classification experiments, we used 15 subimages (50 × 50 pixels) of the selected classes of land covers that are present in the satellite images studied. These subimages were subjected to one-level and two-level decompositions by using orthonormal spline and Gabor-like spline wavelets. The texture indices were calculated and used as feature vectors in the supervised classification system with neural networks. The testing of the model was based on the use of two kinds of widely accepted statistical texture quantities: five texture features determined by the co-occurrence matrix (angular second moment, contrast, correlation, inverse difference moment, entropy), and four statistical texture features determined after the wavelet transformation (mean, standard deviation, energy, entropy). The supervised neural network classification was performed and the discrimination ability of the proposed texture indices was found comparable with that for the sets of five GLCM texture features and four wavelet-based texture features. The results obtained from the neural network classifier showed that the proposed texture model yielded an accuracy of 92.86% on average after orthonormal wavelet decomposition and 100% after Gabor-like wavelet decomposition for texture classification of the examined land cover types on satellite images.     

基于深度学习的大型陨石坑识别方法研究

陨石坑是天体表面最为显著的地形特征，传统陨石坑识别方法主要是对小型陨石坑正负样本的二分类问题研究，且效率和精度均不高。以星体宏观视角下的大型陨石坑作为研究对象，结合图像处理和神经网络等方面的知识，创建了来自不同数据源的陨石坑样本数据库，研究了数据源对网络模型泛化能力的影响，提出了一种效率更高的陨石坑多分类识别方法。在非极大值抑制（NMS）算法基础上，提出了一种精度更高的陨石坑检测算法。经过参数优化和实验验证，构建的基于深度学习的多尺度多分类陨石坑自动识别网络框架取得了较高的准确率，在同源验证集上识别率可达0.985，在异源验证集上识别率可达0.863，并且有效改善了目标检测时检测框冗余及误检测的问题。      

基于改进型YOLO算法的遥感图像舰船检测

目标检测算法在PASCAL VOC等数据集中取得了非常好的检测效果，但是在大尺度遥感图像中舰船目标的检测准确率却很低。因此，针对可见光遥感图像的特点，在YOLOv3-Tiny算法的基础上增加了特征映射模块，为预测层提供丰富的语义信息，同时在特征提取网络中引用残差网络，提高了检测准确率，从而有效提取舰船特征。实验结果表明:优化后的M-YOLO算法检测准确率为94.12%。相比于SSD和YOLOv3算法，M-YOLO算法的检测准确率分别提高了11.11%和9.44%。      

The first new application of the Mathematical Theory of Stochastic Processes to lunar and planetary science: Topography-Profile Diagrams of Mars

The Mathematical Statistics Theory (MST) and the Mathematical Theory of Stochastic Processes (MTSP) are different branches of the more general Mathematical Probability Theory (MPT) that can be used to investigate physical processes through mathematics. Each model of a stochastic process, according to MTSP, can provide one or more interpretations in the MST domain. A large body of work on impact crater statistics according to MST exists, showing cumulative crater frequency (N km⁻²) as a function of age (years) for some particular crater diameter. However, this is only one possible representation in the MST domain of the bombardment of the planetary surface modeled as a stochastic process according to MTSP. The idea that other representations are possible in the MST domain of the same stochastic process from MTSP has been recently presented. The importance of the approach is that each such mathematical-based interpretation can provide a large amount of new information. Coupled with MOLA data, Topography-Profile Diagrams (TPD) are one of the many examples that can provide a large amount of new information regarding the history of Mars. TPD consists of: (1) Topography-Profile Curve (TPC), which is a representation of the planet’s topography, (2) Density-of-Craters Curve (DCC), which represents density of craters, (3) Filtered-DCC (FDCC), which represents DCC filtered by a low-pass filter, included with the purpose of reducing the noise, and (4) Level-of-Substance-Over-Time Curve (LSOTC), which represents interpretation of the influence on the distribution of craters shown by FDCC. TPC uniquely corresponds to the computation of TPD, whereas DCC depends on algorithms for computing the elevation of each crater according to the topography, center coordinates, and radius of impact crater, and FDCC relies on the architecture of the custom designed low-pass filter for filtering DCC. However, all variations of DCC and FDCC, which includes the various impact crater data sets, showed a correlation among the density of craters and elevation over 70–80% of the planet surface. Additionally, if we assume that the ocean primarily caused the noted correlation, LSOTC offers a mathematical approach for estimating topographic change of the ocean’s extent over time. Accordingly, TPD is the first new practical application of MTSP to lunar and planetary sciences, showing correlation of topography to a physical process.     

Bayesian network-based extraction of lunar impact craters from optical images and DEM data

Impact craters are among the most noticeable geomorphological features on the planetary surface and yield significant information about terrain evolution and the history of the solar system. Thus, the recognition of impact craters is an important branch of modern planetary studies. Aiming at addressing problems associated with the insufficient and inaccurate detection of lunar impact craters, a decision fusion method within the Bayesian network (BN) framework is developed in this paper to handle multi-source information from both optical images and associated digital elevation model (DEM) data. First, we implement the edge-based method for efficiently searching crater candidates which are the image patches that can potentially contain impact craters. Secondly, the multi-source representations of an impact crater derived from both optical images and DEM data are proposed and constructed to quantitatively describe the two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) morphology, consisting of Histogram of Oriented Gradient (HOG), Histogram of Multi-scale Slope (HMS) and Histogram of Multi-scale Aspect (HMA). Finally, a BN-based framework integrates the multi-source representations of impact craters, which can provide reductant and complementary information, for distinguishing craters from non-craters. To evaluate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed method, experiments were conducted on three lunar scenes using both orthoimages from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and DEM data acquired by the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA). Experimental results demonstrate that integrating optical images with DEM data significantly decreases the number of false positives compared with using optical images alone, with F₁-score of 84.8% on average. Moreover, compared with other existing fusion methods, our proposed method was quite advantageous especially for the detection of small-scale craters with diameters less than 1000 m.     

无人平台复杂地形探测的视触融合方法

为提高无人平台在复杂环境中的地形探测能力以及解决在小样本数据下识别地形困难的问题，提出了一种无人平台复杂地形探测的视触融合方法。在原始宽度学习的基础上，建立了多模态级联特征节点宽度学习框架。首先进行触觉和视觉初步特征提取和融合特征提取，随后将融合特征矩阵经宽度学习分类器得到地形识别的结果。最后，在自建的视觉-触觉地形 (V-T2)数据集进行了实验验证。结果表明，相比于传统的融合算法，提出的融合算法有很好的准确性和鲁棒性，为无人平台地形探测提供了有效的策略。     

基于卫星遥感的岛礁影像多类目标智能化提取

卫星遥感影像具有背景复杂、目标尺度不一、观测方向各异、纹理不清晰等特点，主流的深度学习目标检测算法不能直接适用于卫星遥感影像的目标检测。改进了RetinaNet，使其适用于卫星遥感影像。首先设计了一种新的特征融合方式，融合ResNet50输出的特征图，使得融合后的特征图同时具有高层语义信息和低层纹理细节信息。为了减弱遥感影像复杂背景对目标特征的影响，设计了特征感知模块，在减弱噪声对特征图影响的同时增强有用特征。挑选DOTA数据集中船只、飞机和存储罐图像进行训练和测试。改进的算法与RetinaNet相比，飞机、船只和存储罐的平均精度分别提高了41%、25%、24%。基于高分二号卫星（GF 2）真实影像数据的试验结果表明，提出的算法能够用于卫星遥感岛礁影像的多类目标智能化提取。     

Single crater-aided inertial navigation for autonomous asteroid landing

In this paper, a novel crater-aided inertial navigation approach for autonomous asteroid landing mission is developed. It overcomes the major deficiencies of existing approaches in the literature, which mainly focuses on the case where craters are abundant in the camera field of view. As a result, traditional crater based methods require at least three craters to achieve crater matching, which limits their application in final landing phase where craters are scarce in the camera’s field of view. In contrast, the proposed algorithm enables single crater based crater matching based on a novel 2D-3D crater re-projection model. The re-projection model adopts inertial measurements as a reference, and re-projects the 3D crater model onto descent images to achieve the matching to its counterpart. An asteroid landing simulation toolbox is developed to validate the performance of the proposed approach. Through comparison with the state-of-the-art local image feature and crater based navigation algorithms, the proposed approach is validated to achieve a competitive performance in terms of feature matching and pose estimation accuracy with a much lighter computational cost.     

Android恶意软件检测低冗余特征选择方法

针对Android恶意软件检测特征选择中,对类间具有相同频率分布的特征过度关注而导致特征冗余问题,提出了一种Android恶意软件检测低冗余特征选择方法。利用Mann-Whitney检验方法选择出存在频率分布偏差的特征;通过外观比率间隔算法量化偏差程度和特征出现频率剔除低偏差和整体软件中低频使用的特征;结合粒子群优化算法和分类器检测效果得到最优特征子集。使用公开数据集DREBIN和AMD进行实验,实验结果显示,在AMD数据集上选择出了294维特征,进行特征选择后6种分类器的检测准确率提高了1%~5%,在DREBIN数据集上选择出了295维特征,少于4种对比方法,且进行特征选择后6种分类器的检测准确率提高了1.7%~5%。实验结果表明,所提方法能够降低Android恶意软件检测中特征的冗余性,提升恶意软件的检测准确率。      

改进YOLOv4的表面缺陷检测算法

为解决航空发动机部件表面缺陷检测精度低、检测速度慢的问题,提出一种改进的YOLOv4算法进行智能检测。在路径聚合网络（PANet）结构中融合浅层特征与深层特征,增大特征检测尺度,同时去除自下而上的路径增强结构,提高小目标检测精度和整体检测速度;根据各类缺陷数量不同的情况,优化聚焦损失中的平衡参数,增加权重因子调节各类缺陷的损失权重,将改进后的聚焦损失代替分类误差中的交叉熵损失函数,降低样本不平衡和难易样本对检测精度的影响。实验表明：相比于原始YOLOv4算法,改进后的YOLOv4算法在测试集上的平均精度均值（mAP）为90.10%,提高了2.17%;检测速度为24.82 fps,提高了1.58 fps,检测精度也高于单发多框检测（SSD）算法、EfficientDet算法、YOLOv3算法和YOLOv4-Tiny算法。     

基于注意力机制的光伏组件热斑检测算法

热斑现象是造成光伏组件发电能力下降的重要原因之一，热斑检测是光伏电站运维必不可少的工作。然而分布式光伏电站的规模普遍较小、选址分散、环境复杂多样，使用传统的热斑检测算法需要投入大量的人力资源。基于此，提出了一种基于注意力机制的热斑检测算法HSNet。通过图像分割消除反光影响，结合通道注意力机制，学习通道间的特征信息，增强目标区域的重要性，采用自定义锚点的方法提高检测速度，使用焦点损失激活函数和基于物体先验概率的类别预测方式改善训练目标样本不均衡导致的分类准确性低的问题，通过回归方法获取准确的目标位置。实验表明:设计的目标检测算法在窗体回归精度和分类准确性方面均有明显的优势，边界框平均精度和准确率分别提升了3.18%和2.42%。