Monocular Vision-Based Pose Determination in Close Proximity for Low Impact Docking

Abstract

Pose determination in close proximity is critical for space missions in which monocular vision is one of the most promising solutions. Although numerous approaches such as using artificial beacons or specific shapes on spacecrafts have proved to be effective, the high individuation and the large time delay limit their use in low impact docking. This paper proposes a unified framework to determinate the relative pose between two docking mechanisms by treating their guide petals as measurement objects. Fusing the pose information of one docking mechanism to simplify image processing and creating an intermediate coordinate system to solve the perspective-n-point problem greatly improve the real-time performance and the robustness of the method. Experimental results show that the position measurement error is within 3.7 mm, while the rotation error around docking direction is less than 0.16°, corresponding to a measurement time reduction of 85%.

Multi-Camera-Based Universal Measurement Method for 6-DOF of Rigid Bodies in World Coordinate System

“…However, the measurement result of this method is the pose between the measured object coordinate system and the camera coordinate system. The same situation also occurs in monocular vision measurement [ 39 ]. In this case, as long as the camera is moved, the 6-DOF of the measured object will be lost and the measurement needs to be performed again.…”

“…On the other hand, monocular vision measurement of 6-DOF often converts into a Perspective-n-Point (PnP) problem, which requires knowing the coordinates of some points in the measured object coordinate system, and it only calculates the 6-DOF of the measured object in the camera coordinate system [ 38 ]. For example, Gangfeng Liu [ 39 ] proposed a monocular vision pose measurement method, which uses the guide petals of the docking mechanism to calculate the relative pose. In his work, it is necessary to extract the guide petals and obtain the pixel coordinates of key points to solve the PnP problem.…”

A Novel Concentric Circular Coded Target, and Its Positioning and Identifying Method for Vision Measurement under Challenging Conditions

“…Consequently, this method has become highly advanced with extensive application in various fields such as industry [ 5 , 6 , 7 ], civil infrastructure [ 8 , 9 ], food [ 10 ], medicine health [ 11 , 12 ], transport [ 13 , 14 , 15 ], security surveillance, etc. Particularly, the vision-based measurement techniques have gathered increasing attention in aerospace research and applications [ 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 ].…”

Laser Ranging-Assisted Binocular Visual Sensor Tracking System

“…It is widely used in industrial and military applications and daily life [1][2][3]. According to the different number of cameras used in the measurement process, visual measurement techniques can be generally divided into monocular vision, binocular vision, and multieye vision [4][5][6].…”