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.     

Design and performances of laser retro-reflector arrays for Beidou navigation satellites and SLR observations

Beidou is the regional satellite navigation system in China, consisting of three kinds of orbiting satellites, MEO, GEO and IGSO, with the orbital altitudes of 21500–36000 km. For improving the accuracy of satellites orbit determination, calibrating microwave measuring techniques and providing better navigation service, all Beidou satellites are equipped with laser retro-reflector arrays (LRAs) to implement high precision laser ranging. The paper presents the design of LRAs for Beidou navigation satellites and the method of inclined installation of LRAs for GEO satellites to increase the effective reflective areas for the regional ground stations. By using the SLR system, the observations for Beidou satellites demonstrated a precision of centimeters. The performances of these LRAs on Beidou satellites are very excellent.     

GNSS弱信号两级快速傅里叶变换捕获方法

高动态弱信号条件下,为了提高捕获过程实现的灵活性,提出了两级快速傅里叶变换(FFT)多普勒频率捕获方法,第一级FFT使用较短的相干积分时间将多普勒频率搜索范围划分为多个粗分格,第二级FFT在每一个分格内对多普勒频率进行更精细的搜索.采用文章提出的捕获方法,可以降低FFT点数,简化实现复杂度;另一方面,计算第一级FFT时可通过流水线操作提高资源利用率.为了验证所提方法的正确性,仿真实现了两级FFT捕获方法.结果表明,两级FFT方法能在高动态弱信号条件下正确捕获多普勒频率.     

一种地标点修正的高精度双目视觉导航方法

自主导航技术是无人机、智能机器人以及智能车辆等技术领域中的一项关键技术。为了克服传统视觉导航方法存在的不足,以摄像机自运动估计为理论基础,提出了一种使用地标点修正的高精度双目视觉导航方法。该方法从连续图像序列的帧间变化中提取摄像机自运动信息,再通过速度、角速度积分求得载体的位置姿态等参数。同时,通过引入地标点提供的绝对定位信息,进一步提高了长时间导航的精度。将地标点绝对定位与双目视觉相对定位相结合,并对双目视觉量测噪声建模和解相关,抑制了单纯使用双目视觉长时间导航时误差的积累发散。仿真结果表明此方法具有精度高、自主性强、导航信息完备等优点。     

空间交会策略回顾及自主快速交会方案研究

介绍了已实施的几种典型的空间交会策略.通过分析现在的2~3d交会方案以及国外最新发展的4圈快速交会方案,总结了实现快速交会所要解决的主要技术问题.针对中国空间交会技术的发展需求,提出了一种自主快速交会方案.对比现有的4圈快速交会方案,该方案所允许的追踪航天器和目标航天器的初始相位角范围大大增加,但燃料消耗基本保持不变,这对开展实际工程有较好的指导意义.     

四种卡尔曼滤波器在仅视线测量相对导航中的性能比较

针对航天器交会时在仅有视线测量条件下的相对导航问题,比较了扩展卡尔曼滤波（extended Kalman filter,EKF）、无迹卡尔曼滤波（unscented Kalman filter,UKF）及平方根形式的卡尔曼滤波（square-root extended Kalman filter,SREKF以及square-root unscented Kalman filter,SRUKF）在这一导航问题中的性能.介绍了仅有视线测量条件下相对导航的特点以及上述4种卡尔曼滤波算法;建立了追踪航天器和目标航天器间相对动力学方程以及基于仅视线测量相对导航时的量测方程;结合3种典型的相对运动形式进行了数值仿真.仿真结果表明：在仅视线测量相对导航中,4种算法的精度处于同一量级;UKF估计相对距离的精度稍优于EKF;SREKF和SRUKF估计相对距离的精度稍优于EKF和UKF.     

An innovative high accuracy autonomous navigation method for the Mars rovers

Autonomous navigation is an important function for a Mars rover to fulfill missions successfully. It is a critical technique to overcome the limitations of ground tracking and control traditionally used. This paper proposes an innovative method based on SINS (Strapdown Inertial Navigation System) with the aid of star sensors to accurately determine the rover?s position and attitude. This method consists of two parts: the initial alignment and navigation. The alignment consists of a coarse position and attitude initial alignment approach and fine initial alignment approach. The coarse one is used to determine approximate position and attitude for the rover. This is followed by fine alignment to tune the approximate solution to accurate one. Upon the completion of initial alignment, the system can be used to provide real-time navigation solutions for the rover. An autonomous navigation algorithm is proposed to estimate and compensate the accumulated errors of SINS in real time. High accuracy attitude information from star sensor is used to correct errors in SINS. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed methods can achieve a high precision autonomous navigation for Mars rovers.     

A six-degree-of-freedom hardware-in-the-loop simulator for small spacecraft

This paper presents a novel six degree of freedom, ground-based experimental testbed, designed for testing new guidance, navigation, and control algorithms for the relative motion of nano-satellites. The development of innovative guidance, navigation and control methodologies is a necessary step in the advance of autonomous spacecraft. The testbed allows for testing these algorithms in a one-g laboratory environment. The system stands out among the existing experimental platforms because all degrees of freedom of motion are controlled via real thrusters, as it would occur on orbit, with no use of simulated dynamics and servo actuators. The hardware and software components of the testbed are detailed in the paper, as is the motion tracking system used to perform its navigation. A Lyapunov-based strategy for closed loop control is used in hardware-in-the loop experiments to successfully demonstrate the full six-degree-of-freedom system׳s capabilities. In particular, the test case shows a two-phase regulation experiment, commanding both position and attitude to reach specified final state vectors.     

采用连续旋转检偏器的天空偏振光探测装置设计与实现

为了实现对运动目标与天空散射光的偏振分布模式进行快速、有效的探测,根据连续旋转检偏器光强度透射的数学模型,利用光电传感器的积分特性,设计并构建了采用连续旋转检偏器的偏振成像探测装置。测试结果表明,该装置对偏振光的角度的测量精度优于0.069°（3σ）,偏振度的测量精度优于0.12%（3σ）。一幅偏振图像的探测时间达到0.7s。在偏振度低于4%的情况下,仍可以探测到有规律的偏振分布模式,其抵抗恶劣天气的性能优于现有的偏振导航探测装置。     

国外自主交会测量敏感器技术发展趋势

基于空间任务的高可靠性要求,在传统传感器通过技术改进等方式提升性能的同时,新型探测传感器逐渐进入人们的视野。结合国外自主交会任务,通过介绍自主交会敏感器的发展历程,分析了未来交会对接敏感器的发展方向。