Far and proximity maneuvers of a constellation of service satellites and autonomous pose estimation of customer satellite using machine vision

Abstract

Space robotics has a substantial interest in achieving on-orbit satellite servicing operations autonomously, e.g. rendezvous and docking/berthing (RVD) with customer and malfunctioning satellites. An on-orbit servicing vehicle requires the ability to estimate the position and attitude in situations whenever the targets are uncooperative. Such situation comes up when the target is damaged. In this context, this work presents a robust autonomous pose system applied to RVD missions. Our approach is based on computer vision, using a single camera and some previous knowledge of the target, i.e. the customer spacecraft. A rendezvous analysis mission tool for autonomous service satellite has been developed and presented, for far maneuvers, e.g. distance above 1 km from the target, and close maneuvers. The far operations consist of orbit transfer using the Lambert formulation. The close operations include the inspection phase (during which the pose estimation is computed) and the final approach phase. Our approach is based on the Lambert problem for far maneuvers and the Hill equations are used to simulate and analyze the approaching and final trajectory between target and chase during the last phase of the rendezvous operation. A method for optimally estimating the relative orientation and position between camera system and target is presented in detail. The target is modelled as an assembly of points. The pose of the target is represented by dual quaternion in order to develop a simple quadratic error function in such a way that the pose estimation task becomes a least square minimization problem. The problem of pose is solved and some methods of non-linear square optimization (Newton, Newton-Gauss, and Levenberg-Marquard) are compared and discussed in terms of accuracy and computational cost.

Spacecraft Pose Estimation Based on Different Camera Model

“…With the development of space technology, more and more space missions involve the relative position measurement of two spacecraft [1][2][3], such as the space assembly, space satellite repair, fuel injection, satellite capturing and tracking, space interception and so on. The measurement of spacecraft relative position plays a very important role in maintaining or changing the spacecraft's orientation in space so that to complete the space mission.…”

Scale-unambiguous relative pose estimation of space uncooperative targets based on the fusion of three-dimensional time-of-flight camera and monocular camera

“…[1][2][3][4][5] The advantages of monocular vision commonly used in current space operations are apparent, such as compact, low power budget, and high resolution. Vision-based relative navigation has gradually become an attractive alternative for this application.…”

Guidance and Control of Position and Attitude for Rendezvous and Dock/Berthing with a Noncooperative/Target Spacecraft

“…On-orbit servicing (OOS) is broadly defined as the execution of assembly, repair, upgrade, refuel, rescue, retrieval, and maintenance of a spacecraft in orbit [1]. Table 1 shows possible OOS scenarios based on the status of the satellite [2,3]. A compulsory requirement for the service satellite is the ability to deal with a noncooperating client or target satellite.…”

“…RVD problem with a noncooperating target can be broadly divided into three stages [8]: long-range or phasing, proximity operations, and terminal phase. Each phase has its own mission specific subphases with special initial and terminal conditions to be met [3,8,9]. In light of OOS, this work presents suitable control strategies for proximity phase operations in autonomous RVD/B, without venturing into phasing or final stage docking operations.…”