Star recognition algorithm for APS star tracker: oriented triangles

An efficient star pattern recognition algorithm is presented. The purpose of this algorithm is to make sure of the compatibility of the software and the imaging sensor noise level. The new CMOS APS sensors have not currently reached the same accuracy as the former CCD sensors in position as well as in magnitude determination, especially in the dynamic stages. This algorithm allows the system to recognize the star pattern 20% faster than with reference algorithms. No false recognition has been noticed. Used databases have a size 5 to 10 times smaller, depending on other reference algorithms. Oriented triangles are used to compare the measured star pattern with the catalogue stars. The triangle's characterization criteria propose several solutions in a first time. A unique solution is selected by means of identification and validation methods in a second time. First results, presented hereinafter, are very encouraging, and this algorithm may be used in the future APS star trackers. APS star tracker robustness is significantly enhanced by this method during the critical navigation phases     

An all-sky autonomous star map identification algorithm

The attitude of the spacecraft can be obtained with accuracy by using star sensors. Its key technology is how to identify stellar maps. Triangle algorithm is used most widely in the current star map identification algorithms. In the field of physical geography modelling, Delaunay triangulation cutting algorithm has been widely used because of its important characteristic; the result of this triangulation cutting method is unique from a random set of points. This triangulation algorithm is first applied to identify star map for its particular character. In final, the proposed method is applied to simulation; the results show that compared with the current star map identification algorithms, the algorithm presented in this paper has the advantage of real-time properties and robustness. It needs a smaller database of guidance stars and matches more rapidly.     

Recursive mode star identification algorithms

Star identification can be accomplished by several different available algorithms that identify the stars observed by a star tracker. However, efficiency and reliability remain key issues and the availability of new active pixel cameras requires new approaches. Two novel algorithms for recursive mode star identification are presented here. The first approach is derived by the spherical polygon search (SP-search) algorithm, it was used to access all the cataloged stars observed by the sensor field-of-view (FOV) and recursively add/remove candidate cataloged stars according to the predicted image motion induced by camera attitude dynamics. Star identification is then accomplished by a star pattern matching technique which identifies the observed stars in the reference catalog. The second method uses star neighborhood information and a catalog neighborhood pointer matrix to access the star catalog. In the recursive star identification process, and under the assumption of "slow" attitude dynamics, only the stars in the neighborhood of previously identified stars are considered for star identification in the succeeding frames. Numerical tests are performed to validate the absolute and relative efficiency of the proposed methods.     

大动态干扰下基于光学图像的自主导航技术

针对高超声速飞行器在平流层内飞行过程中自主天文导航时,气动光学效应及运动模糊等大动态干扰严重影响观星和高精度导航的问题,提出一种基于正则化思想的高超星图半盲复原改进算法。该算法首先借助已有的高超星图模糊核提取算法获得先验模糊核,为复原提供便利条件。接着结合天文图像灰度及梯度的稀疏先验分布特性,设计了一种针对高超星图的正则化盲复原模型,并结合先验模糊核所提供的信息,构建了改进的半盲复原方法,能在先验模糊核精度较低或缺失时转化为盲复原方法,提高了算法的鲁棒性。将本算法与传统星图复原算法、其他最新正则化复原算法进行星图复原与导航效果比较,数值仿真结果显示本算法的复原效果更佳,峰值信噪比（PSNR）达到36.97,并且质心提取成功率达到99.23%,能够明显改善星图识别的成功率,从而大幅提升高超声速飞行器在平流层中的大动态干扰下的自主导航能力。     

星点坐标辅助的全天区三角形星图识别算法

随着当前星敏感器视场（FOV）的增大,探测能力的提高,一帧图中拍摄到的恒星更多。但是受星敏感器光谱范围的限制及空间环境干扰影响,星等测试精度一般不高于0.2 mV。为了充分发挥当前星敏感器视场和探测能力的优势,并避免星等误差的影响,提高全天区星图识别算法在线应用的适用性,提出了一种星点坐标辅助的全天区三角形星图识别算法。该方法采用"全局初步搜索识别—局部精细匹配验证—最优结果选取"的算法思想。首先,根据星敏感器探测到的极限星等范围构建导航星表,选取亮星构建角距星表,既确保了星表的完备性,又有利于充分利用星敏感器的探测能力。然后,在三角形约束条件下进行角距匹配识别,得到一个或多个导航三角形,在该识别环节提出了非线性矢量法查找星表,既提高了定位精度,又能采用单精度数据类型降低存储空间。最后,提出局部天区星点坐标匹配算法进一步消除冗余匹配,同时又识别出视场内更多的观测星,有利于提高识别率和定姿精度。试验结果表明,与其他一些经典的星图识别算法相比,所提算法在识别率和星表容量方面更有优势。识别率可达99.9%,且随着星等的增加,存储容量增加的最少。所提算法更加适于大视场、高星等敏感范围的星敏感器在线应用。     

Rapid Star Tracking Algorithm for Star Sensor

A rapid star tracking algorithm is proposed. In order to speed up the tracking, three techniques includng parallel star centroiding, sorting, and star catalogue partition are designed for three time-consuming portions in tracking algorithms. The parallel star centroiding is implemented with Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) which avoid image storage and transmission. Update rate of star sensor is improved. Sorting star coordinates in star image plane, and then matching, which avoid matching between stars with a long distance in image plane. Star catalogue partition divides the celestial sphere into many small partitions. In star mapping, guide stars are searched in the partitions near the direction of star sensor's boresight is not in the whole celestial sphere and therefore reduced the total number of searched guide stars. The software and hardware performance of tracking algorithms are simulated. Tracking robustness and the tracking speed comparison are tested in the software simulation. In hardware tests, the tracking time in every step is obtained.     

Star identification algorithms: novel approach & comparison study

A novel approach to the problem of star identification for spacecraft attitude determination based on data provided by a star camera is proposed. The algorithm is based on pattern matching ideas and provides improved reliability with respect to similar methods available in the literature. The achievable performance is demonstrated via a comparison study with two published algorithms     

一种改进的星图降噪算法研究

在星敏感器的使用过程中，由于外界环境的影响及传感器自身的限制，拍摄出来的星图不可避免地存在一些噪声，因此对星图进行去噪处理是一项非常重要的工作。针对传统高斯模板滤波存在的引入邻域噪声、无法自行根据星图特性修正等造成去噪效果不好的问题，提出了一种改进的星图降噪算法。该方法在滤波前先进行坏点剔除工作，并采用高斯低通滤波与高通滤波结合的方式对图像进行处理，在抑制噪声的同时有效地保留了星点信号。通过阐述星敏感器的工作原理，分析星图的噪声特性，对星图滤波去噪算法进行研究，并进行模拟星图影像提取星点坐标实验。结果表明：使用该算法进行滤波比传统的高斯滤波算法提取的质心坐标精确度更高，较传统方法横坐标提高0.00538个像素点，纵坐标提高0.0077个像素点，证实了图像处理算法的有效性。     

Geometric voting algorithm for star trackers

We present an algorithm for recovering the orientation (attitude) of a satellite-based camera. The algorithm matches stars in an image taken with the camera to stars in a star catalogue. The algorithm is based on a geometric voting scheme in which a pair of stars in the catalogue votes for a pair of stars in the image if the angular distance between the stars of both pairs is similar. As angular distance is a symmetric relationship, each of the two catalogue stars votes for each of the image stars. The identity of each star in the image is set to the identity of the catalogue star that cast the most votes. Once the identity of the stars is determined, the attitude of the camera is computed using a quaternion-based method. We further present a fast tracking algorithm that estimates the attitude for subsequent images after the first algorithm has terminated successfully. Our method runs in comparable speed to state of the art algorithms but is still more robust than them. The system has been implemented and tested on simulated data and on real sky images.     

一种快速的星敏感器星跟踪方法研究

阐述了星敏感器中星跟踪方法的重要性,指出了目前国内外星跟踪方法的不足。针对这些不足,提出了一种全新的、快速的星跟踪方法。新的跟踪方法采用现场可编程门阵列(FPGA)实现了实时的星点定位;正是由于这种技术的采用,加快了星点位置信息的获取,摈弃了跟踪窗的跟踪方法,采用简单的匹配识别的跟踪方法;对于新星的识别,由于有初始姿态而采用匹配组的识别方法。最后给出了星跟踪过程的实验结果。     

基于微小卫星的空间目标光学探测定位方法

为实现空间目标的天基光学观测,利用双星定位原理,采用仅测角的观测方式,结合最小二乘法建立了双星几何定位模型。考虑到星点提取作为光学定位算法中的重要一环将直接影响最终的定位精度,因而针对就星图处理部分,分析了星图的灰度特点,采用阈值分割法进行了去噪处理,选取了几种质心法对星点进行提取,利用真实星图对提取结果进行比较,选出了形心法和阈值质心法 2种较为可行的星点提取算法。通过仿真计算和蒙特卡洛误差分析结果可知,不考虑误差时,定位误差小于 10-5 m;考虑主要误差源时,定位误差小于 100 m;且姿态误差对定位方法的精度影响最大,数值上可以达到总误差的 0.9倍以上,速度误差的影响最小,只有总误差的 1/30,可以忽略;定位误差近似呈高斯分布且误差的大小与误差源近似呈线性关系。由此可见,文章所建立的定位算法可以对空间目标实现较为精确的定位。     

Precession–nutation correction for star tracker attitude measurement of STECE satellite

Space Technology Experiment and Climate Exploration(STECE) is a small satellite mission of China for space technology experiment and climate exploration. A new test star tracker and one ASTRO 10 star tracker have been loaded on the STECE satellite to test the new star tracker's measurement performance. However,there is no autonomous precession–nutation correction function for the test star tracker,which causes an apparent periodic deflection in the inter-boresight angle between the two star trackers with respect to each other of up to ±500 arcsec,so the precession and nutation effect needs to be considered while assessing the test star tracker. This paper researches on the precession–nutation correction for the test star tracker's attitude measurement and presents a precession–nutation correction method based on attitude quaternion data. The periodic deflection of the inter-boresight angle between the two star trackers has been greatly eliminated after the precession and nutation of the test star tracker's attitude data have been corrected by the proposed method and the validity of the proposed algorithm has been demonstrated. The in-flight accuracy of the test star tracker has been assessed like attitude noise and low-frequency errors after the precession–nutation correction.     

星点图像的目标提取算法研究

对于星点灰度重心法等亚像素提取算法来说,需要提取星点区域内的每一个像素。基于扫描的边界搜索法只能获取目标的边界像素,文中对其进行了扩展,通过判断边界像素中最大最小行列数来确定目标区域的具体范围,从而提取目标区域内的每一个像素。针对大视场星点图像目标范围小、相互间距离远的特点,为减小计算量,提出了基于视框搜索的目标提取算法。通过实验证明,基于视框的算法在计算量上比基于边界搜索的算法减少3/4。     

一种改进的三角形星图识别方法

首先提出在直角坐标系下将天球球面均匀地分成486个分区的方法——"内接正方体法",实现导航星的快速检索。然后按照星对角距的大小升序排列,直接存储星对角距,并通过设置星对角距状态标识,完成星对角距的快速匹配搜索。最后,引入验证识别环节有效地解决观测三角形与匹配的导航三角形产生的冗余问题。仿真实验表明,改进的三角形星图识别方法对星点位置噪声和星等(亮度)噪声均具有较强的抗干扰能力,且在识别时间和存储空间的需求方面均比传统的三角形算法也具有较大的优势。     

SINS/BD紧组合导航系统故障检测算法研究与实现

由于惯性导航系统和卫星导航系统具有良好的互补性与北斗导航系统的迅速发展,惯性/卫星紧组合导航系统得到广泛应用。但卫星导航系统的时变、易受干扰等特性,极易污染整个组合导航系统。因此,研究了一种新型的惯性/北斗紧组合导航系统的故障检测算法,在传统的卡方故障检测算法基础上,利用新息动态变化特性来识别故障星,并对故障星进行隔离,从而保证整个导航系统的稳定性与精度。最后基于嵌入式PC104平台,利用Qt Creator软件开发了多线程惯性/北斗紧组合导航系统,对所研究的算法进行了可靠验证。实验结果表明,所研究的故障检测算法能够有效地检测出卫星信号故障,能及时剔除故障星,大大降低了漏检、错检的概率,提高了整个导航系统的可靠性与精度。     

Hybrid Simulation System Study of SINS/CNS Integrated Navigation

In flight tests, to demonstrate the performance of integrated navigation systems, which are strapdown inertial navigation systems/celestial navigation systems (SINS/CNS), will involve a lot of effort and a heavy financial budget. So, it is important to design a functional self-contained hardware in a loop simulation system on the ground for solving the verification of SINS/CNS integrated navigation systems. Aiming at solving the main program, a high precision, versatile and better real-time performance hybrid simulation system of SINS/CNS integrated navigation is presented. The system adopts the design of hardware-functional modularization and software-flow integration, and makes use of a trajectory generator to produce simulated nominal trajectory data which is a uniform reference to signal process, and employs unique time synchronization algorithms to collect actual errors data of inertial sub-system and celestial sub-system. By combining with nominal trajectory data, the data smoothing, all-sky autonomous star map identification and integrated navigation algorithm based on unscented Kalman filtering (UKF), this system can accomplish a lot of system performance testing. It has the features of flexibility and extensibility and can be used to effectively reduce the experimental expense and shorten the development time of integrated navigation system, which is significant for studying algorithm performance, system speciality, and practical application of integrated navigation system.     

一种结合角距特征的改进栅格星图识别算法

针对栅格算法易受邻域星点影响导致误匹配的问题,提出了一种结合角距特征的改进栅格星图识别算法。首先介绍了改进栅格算法的原理,其次设计了融合栅格识别模式和星角距识别模式的算法实现流程,最后开展了基于不同视角下的大视场仿真星图的算法试验验证和性能分析。结果表明,由于角距特征具有旋转不变性和不易受观测星邻域星点分布影响等特点,结合角距特征对失效观测星进行再匹配的改进栅格算法,在兼顾存储量需求小、运行速度快等优势的同时,识别率和鲁棒性也得到了提升,最高识别率可达98.88%,在位置噪声干扰以及缺失星干扰下,改进算法的识别率仍可保持在95%,说明算法鲁棒性强,具有较好的应用前景。     

高超声速飞行器组合导航鲁棒滤波算法

高超声速飞行器由于其飞行环境的影响,使得GPS和星敏感器的量测噪声表现出非高斯特性。针对常规基于Kalman滤波的组合导航在非高斯噪声下性能下降的问题,提出了基于鲁棒滤波的高超声速飞行器组合导航算法。方法在惯性／GPS／＆异步量测建模的基础上,通过随机去耦将量测更新转化为线性回归问题,并基于M估计获得状态量最优估计。仿真结果表明,方法对非高斯噪声具有更好的鲁棒性,有效提高了高超声速飞行器组合导航系统的性能。     

基于帧间角距匹配的跟踪模式星图识别

为了提高星敏感器的跟踪匹配速率,提高星敏感器姿态更新率,本文提出了一种基于帧间角距匹配的跟踪模式星图识别方法.该方法充分利用上一时刻的角距匹配信息构建了一个实时跟踪星库,并把当前时刻的角距信息在实时跟踪星库中进行匹配识别,识别成功后利用识别时用到的信息对实时跟踪星库进行更新.仿真实验表明,该方法具有匹配时间短、匹配成功率高的优点.     

Implicit Adaptive Control for a Class of MIMO Systems

Two implicit model reference adaptive control algorithms for multi-input multi-output systems are developed. These algorithms do not require either satisfaction of the perfect model following conditions or explicit parameter identification. The first algorithm ensures asymptotic stability of the output error provided that the output stabilized plant transfer matrix is strictly positive real. The second algorithm guarantees a bounded error under less restrictive conditions. The algorithms are applied to the lateral axis of an F-8 aircraft.