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Synthetic photometric landmarks used for absolute navigation near an asteroid

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 May 2020

O. Knuuttila Open the ORCID record for O. Knuuttila [Opens in a new window] ,
A. Kestilä Open the ORCID record for A. Kestilä [Opens in a new window]  and
E. Kallio Open the ORCID record for E. Kallio [Opens in a new window]
O. Knuuttila*
Affiliation:
Department of Electronics and Nanoengineering, Aalto University School of Electrical Engineering, Espoo, Finland
A. Kestilä
Affiliation:
Finnish Meteorological Institute, Helsinki, Finland
E. Kallio
Affiliation:
Department of Electronics and Nanoengineering, Aalto University School of Electrical Engineering, Espoo, Finland
*
olli.knuuttila@aalto.fi
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Abstract

The need for autonomous location estimation in the form of optical navigation is an essential requirement for forthcoming deep space missions. While crater-based navigation might work well with larger bodies littered with craters, small sub-kilometer bodies do not necessarily have them. We have developed a new pose estimation method for absolute navigation based on photometric local feature extraction techniques thus making it suitable for missions that cannot rely on craters. The algorithm can be used by a navigation filter in conjunction with relative pose estimation such as visual odometry for additional robustness and accuracy. To estimate the position and orientation of the spacecraft in the asteroid-fixed coordinate frame, it uses navigation camera images in combination with other readily available information, such as orientation relative to the stars and the current time for an initial estimate of the asteroid rotation state. Evaluation of the algorithm when using different feature extractors is performed, on one hand, using Monte Carlo simulations and, on the other hand, using actual images taken by the Rosetta spacecraft orbiting the comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. Our analysis, where four different feature extraction methods (AKAZE, ORB, SIFT, SURF) were compared, showed that AKAZE is most promising in terms of stability and accuracy.

Keywords

Visual navigationVision-based navigationOptical navigationVision-based absolute navigationMonocular visual navigationAsteroid proximity navigationPhotometric feature-based navigation
Type
Research Article
Information
The Aeronautical Journal , Volume 124 , Issue 1279 , September 2020 , pp. 1281 - 1300
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Royal Aeronautical Society

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