초록 ▼

The invention concerns the identification of stars. It consists in selecting "detected stars" among the sensed stars; coupling the detected stars; selecting all or part of the doublets of the catalogue which are most likely to have been present in the visual field of the sensor, the likely doublets

The invention concerns the identification of stars. It consists in selecting "detected stars" among the sensed stars; coupling the detected stars; selecting all or part of the doublets of the catalogue which are most likely to have been present in the visual field of the sensor, the likely doublets and their stars constituting a set D; pairing stars of D with detected stars; and supplying all or part of the paired couples of stars to a processing system. The method is characterized in that it comprises at least the consolidating classification of the set D stars and at least a step using this classification for reducing the number of stars to be paired and/or for carrying out the pairing, and/or for selecting the paired couples. The invention is applicable in particular for determining the attitude of an aircraft or submarine.

대표청구항 ▼

[ What is claimed and desired to be secured by Letters Patent of the United States is:] [1.]1. A method of recognizing stars by comparing sensed stars defined by a star sensor from signals received from the sky and stars from a predefined catalog of stars, for a processing system using the star reco

[ What is claimed and desired to be secured by Letters Patent of the United States is:] [1.]1. A method of recognizing stars by comparing sensed stars defined by a star sensor from signals received from the sky and stars from a predefined catalog of stars, for a processing system using the star recognition, wherein calculation means are employed to perform the following operations:applying a selection criterion to select some stars from the sensed stars, the stars selected in this way being referred to as detected stars;matching the detected stars in pairs of stars referred to as detected doublets;matching the stars from the catalog in pairs of stars referred to as catalogue doublets;representing the catalogue doublets and the detected doublets in a characterization mathematical space to enable them to be compared;marking in that space the catalogue doublets referred to as likely doublets which, in that space, are in a certain vicinity of the detected doublets;creating matched pairs each comprising a star from a likely doublet referred to as a likely star and a detected star, andsupplying to the processing system at least one list of matched pairs,characterized in that the calculating means are used to perform the following operations:grouping the stars from the likely doublets into classes, deeming two stars to belong to the same class if and only if the two stars are one and the same star or there is a path linking them, a path being a series of likely doublets such that any pair of consecutive doublets of the series has at least one star in common, andconstructing lists so that the likely stars of the same list are the likely stars of the matched pairs of the same class.