Abstract
In order to enable the non-cooperative rendezvous, capture, and removal of large space debris, automatic recognition of the target is needed. Video-based techniques are the most suitable in the strict context of space missions, where low-energy consumption is fundamental, and sensors should be passive in order to avoid any possible damage to external objects as well as to the chaser satellite.This paper presents a novel fast shape-from-shading (SfS) algorithm and a field-programmable gate array (FPGA)-based system hardware architecture for video-based shape reconstruction of space debris. The FPGA-based architecture, equipped with a pair of cameras, includes a fast image pre-processing module, a core implementing a feature-based stereo-vision approach, and a processor that executes the novel SfS algorithm.Experimental results show the limited amount of logic resources needed to implement the proposed architecture, and the timing improvements with respect to other state-of-the-art SfS methods. The remaining resources available in the FPGA device can be exploited to integrate other vision-based techniques to improve the comprehension of debris model, allowing a fast evaluation of associated kinematics in order to select the most appropriate approach for capture of the target space debris.
Highlights
The challenge of removal of large space debris, such as spent launcher upper stages or satellites having reached the end of their lifetime, in low, medium, and geostationary earth orbits, is already well-known
To overcome the first problem, we propose a novel fast SfS algorithm which exploits the knowledge on the input light direction, with respect to the image plane, to reduce the computational load of the shape reconstruction problem
Experimental results To prove the feasibility of the proposed architecture, we implemented both the field-programmable gate array (FPGA) subsystem and the processor subsystem on a single FPGA device exploring the Aeroflex Gaisler GR-CPCI-XC4V development board, which is equipped with a Xilinx Virtex-4 VLX100 FPGA device and a 256 MB SDRAM memory [55]
Summary
The challenge of removal of large space debris, such as spent launcher upper stages or satellites having reached the end of their lifetime, in low, medium, and geostationary earth orbits, is already well-known. We improve the work presented in [19] by proposing a novel fast shape- from-shading algorithm, and a system architecture that includes: (i) hardware accelerated modules, implementing the image pre-processing (i.e., image noise filtering and equalization) and the feature-based stereo-vision, and (ii) a processor running the proposed novel shape-from-shading (SfS) algorithm.
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