Building Maps for Terrain Relative Navigation Using Blender: an Open Source Approach

Smith, Kyle; Anastas, Nicholas; Olguin, Andrew; Fritz, Matthew; Sostaric, Ronald R.; Pedrotty, Sam; Tse, Teming

doi:10.2514/6.2022-0747

Cited by 2 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…Steiner et al [15] present a utility-based approach for optimal landmark selection and demonstrates performance on a rocket testbed flight up to 500m. As shadows and variable lighting conditions are a well known challenge for TRN, Smith et al [16] demonstrates the ability to use Blender to enhance a satellite database for different lighting conditions.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This is due in part to shadows, lack of distinct texture on the ground, and regions with a sparse amount of landmarks in our database. Depending on mission requirements, this issue can be greatly reduced during the landmark database creation process such as by optimizing for landmark template size, ensuring sufficent landmark coverage at low altitudes for all phases of a flight, and by baking shadows into the database as was demonstrated in [16]. However, for the purposes of the balloon experiment in this paper, we determined our database to be sufficient.…”

Section: A Balloon Flightmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Additionally, the 2D-2D homography assumption which we use to warp landmark templates into the image for correlation begins to break down when 3D structures such as mountains are viewed from low altitudes. Work with database creation such as [16] along with advances in IBAL not mentioned in the paper can be used to reduce these issue for low altitude navigation over mountains.…”

Section: B Blue Origin New Shepard Flightmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Vision-Based Terrain Relative Navigation on High Altitude Balloon and Sub-Orbital Rocket

Maggio

Mario

Streetman

et al. 2023

AIAA SCITECH 2023 Forum

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We present an experimental analysis on the use of a camera-based approach for highaltitude navigation by associating mapped landmarks from a satellite image database to camera images, and by leveraging inertial sensors between camera frames. We evaluate performance of both a sideways-tilted and downward-facing camera on data collected from a World View Enterprises high-altitude balloon with data beginning at an altitude of 33 km and descending to near ground level (4.5 km) with 1.5 hours of flight time. We demonstrate less than 290 meters of average position error over a trajectory of more than 150 kilometers. In addition to showing performance across a range of altitudes, we also demonstrate the robustness of the Terrain Relative Navigation (TRN) method to rapid rotations of the balloon, in some cases exceeding 20 • per second, and to camera obstructions caused by both cloud coverage and cords swaying underneath the balloon. Additionally, we evaluate performance on data collected by two cameras inside the capsule of Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket on payload flight NS-23, traveling at speeds up to 880 km/h, and demonstrate less than 55 meters of average position error.

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Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: A Balloon Flightmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: B Blue Origin New Shepard Flightmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Vision-Based Terrain Relative Navigation on High Altitude Balloon and Sub-Orbital Rocket

Maggio

Mario

Streetman

et al. 2023

AIAA SCITECH 2023 Forum

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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Short-Arc Horizon-Based Optical Navigation by Total Least-Squares Estimation

et al. 2023

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Horizon-based optical navigation (OPNAV) is an attractive solution for deep space exploration missions, with strong autonomy and high accuracy. In some scenarios, especially those with large variations in spacecraft distance from celestial bodies, the visible horizon arc could be very short. In this case, the traditional Christian–Robinson algorithm with least-squares (LS) estimation is inappropriate and would introduce a large mean residual that can be even larger than the standard deviation (STD). To solve this problem, a simplified measurement covariance model was proposed by analyzing the propagation of measurement errors. Then, an unbiased solution with the element-wise total least-squares (EW-TLS) algorithm was developed in which the measurement equation and the covariance of each measurement are fully considered. To further simplify this problem, an approximate generalized total least-squares algorithm (AG-TLS) was then proposed, which achieves a non-iterative solution by using approximate measurement covariances. The covariance analysis and numerical simulations show that the proposed algorithms have impressive advantages in the short-arc horizon scenario, for the mean residuals are always close to zero. Compared with the EW-TLS algorithm, the AG-TLS algorithm trades a negligible accuracy loss for a huge reduction in execution time and achieves a computing speed comparable to the traditional algorithm. Furthermore, a simulated navigation scenario reveals that a short-arc horizon can provide reliable position estimates for planetary exploration missions.

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Building Maps for Terrain Relative Navigation Using Blender: an Open Source Approach

Cited by 2 publications

References 5 publications

Vision-Based Terrain Relative Navigation on High Altitude Balloon and Sub-Orbital Rocket

Vision-Based Terrain Relative Navigation on High Altitude Balloon and Sub-Orbital Rocket

Short-Arc Horizon-Based Optical Navigation by Total Least-Squares Estimation

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