초록

In general, in one embodiment, a starfield image as seen by an object is analyzed. Compressive samples are taken of the starfield image and, in the compressed domain, processed to remove noise. Stars in the starfield image are identified and used to determine an attitude of the object.

대표청구항 ▼

1. A method for estimating an attitude of an object, the method comprising: compressively sampling starfield image data representing a first view of a starfield as seen from an object to create a first compressed sample, the compressive sampling of the starfield image data representing the first vie

1. A method for estimating an attitude of an object, the method comprising: compressively sampling starfield image data representing a first view of a starfield as seen from an object to create a first compressed sample, the compressive sampling of the starfield image data representing the first view comprising summing a number of light pixels in at least a portion of the first view image data;compressively sampling starfield image data representing a second view of the starfield as seen from the object to create a second compressed sample, the compressive sampling of the starfield image data representing the second view comprising summing a number of light pixels in at least a portion of the second view image data, the first and second views differing by a known displacement and the second compressed sample being offset by the known displacement;eliminating noise common to the first and second views by comparing, in a compressed domain, the first and second compressed samples, thereby creating an improved quality sample; andemploying the improved quality sample to estimate an attitude of the object. 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing the improved quality sample in computer memory. 3. The method of claim 2, wherein the computer memory is rad-hard computer memory. 4. The method of claim 1, wherein eliminating noise common to the first and second views comprises identifying differences between the first and second compressed samples. 5. The method of claim 1, wherein eliminating noise common to the first and second views comprises matching a first pattern in the first compressed sample to a second pattern in the second compressed sample. 6. The method of claim 5, further comprising summing the matched first and second patterns in the compressed domain. 7. The method of claim 1, wherein the first compressed sample comprises an average of a plurality of compressed samples of the first view. 8. The method of claim 1, wherein the second compressed sample comprises an average of a plurality of compressed samples of the second view. 9. The method of claim 1, further comprising: compressively sampling starfield image data representing a third view of the starfield to create a third compressed sample; andeliminating noise common to the first, second, and third views by comparing the first, second, and third compressed samples. 10. The method of claim 1, wherein the object is selected from the group consisting of a satellite, a spacecraft, an aircraft, and a ground-based star-viewing object. 11. The method of claim 1, wherein the noise is caused by at least one of a lens defect or a camera sensor defect. 12. The method of claim 1, wherein the second view comprises at least a portion of the first view. 13. The method of claim 1, wherein comparing the first and second compressed samples comprises accounting for the known displacement in the second compressed sample. 14. A computer system for estimating an attitude of an object, the system comprising: a compression module for compressively sampling (i) starfield image data representing a first view of a starfield as seen from an object to create a first compressed sample, and (ii) starfield image data representing a second view of the starfield as seen from the object to create a second compressed sample, the compressive sampling of the starfield image data representing the first view comprising summing a number of light pixels in at least a portion of the first view image data, the compressive sampling of the starfield image data representing the second view comprising summing a number of light pixels in at least a portion of the second view image data, the first and second views differing by a known displacement and the second compressed sample being offset by the known displacement;a comparison module for eliminating noise common to the first and second views by comparing, in a compressed domain, the first and second compressed samples, thereby creating an improved quality sample; andan estimation module for estimating an attitude of the object based on the improved quality sample. 15. The system of claim 14, further comprising computer memory for storing the improved quality sample. 16. The system of claim 15, wherein the computer memory is rad-hard computer memory. 17. The system of claim 14, wherein the comparison module, in eliminating noise common to the first and second views, identifies differences between the first and second compressed samples. 18. The system of claim 14, wherein the comparison module, in eliminating noise common to the first and second views, matches a first pattern in the first compressed sample to a second pattern in the second compressed sample. 19. The system of claim 18, further comprising a summing module for summing the matched first and second patterns in the compressed domain. 20. The system of claim 14, wherein the first compressed sample comprises an average of a plurality of compressed samples of the first view. 21. The system of claim 14, wherein the second compressed sample comprises an average of a plurality of compressed samples of the second view. 22. The system of claim 14, wherein the compression module further compressively samples starfield image data representing a third view of the starfield to create a third compressed sample, the comparison module further eliminating noise common to the first, second, and third views by comparing the first, second, and third compressed samples. 23. The system of claim 14, wherein the noise is caused by at least one of a lens defect or a camera sensor defect. 24. The system of claim 14, wherein the object is selected from the group consisting of a satellite, a spacecraft, an aircraft, and a ground-based star-viewing object. 25. The system of claim 14, wherein the second view comprises at least a portion of the first view, and wherein the comparison module, in comparing the first and second compressed samples, accounts for the known displacement in the second compressed sample.