Semi-Autonomous Inspection with a Neutral Buoyancy Free-Flyer

McGhan, Catharine L. R.; Besser, Rebecca; Sanner, Robert M.; Atkins, Ella M.

doi:10.2514/6.2006-6800

“…Being a popular research area, the University of Maryland has built the SCAMP testbed for semi-autonomous operations in a neutral buoyancy medium [57], while the 1.2. LITERATURE REVIEW Figure 1.6: Universita La Sapienza -PINOCCHIO [71] Synchronized Position Hold Engage Reorient Experimental Satellites (SPHERES) was developed in the MIT Space Systems Laboratory, which have been operating in 6DOF in the International Space Station (ISS) where the microgravity environment is at disposal.…”

Section: Earlier Testbeds For the Experimentation Of Gnandc Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Autonomous Navigation System Design For The Free-Floating Spacecraft on a Planar Testbed

Tavana¹

2023

Preprint

0

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As the International Space Exploration Coordination Group (ISECG) states, there is a growing interest in the building of a new Deep Space Habitat (DSH) near the moon, providing a microgravity research laboratory, and a refueling and maintenance stop for lunar and asteroid missions. The development of such a station requires the on-orbit self-assembly technology of large space structures due to the large size of the structures, long-distance, and harsh environment for human assembly. Considering the need for a robust and accurate control system to perform the on-orbit self-assembly task, ground testbed facilities are playing a crucial role to evaluate and validate the efficacy and efficiency of the newly-developed control systems. Although many testbeds have already been developed around the world for many purposes, including proximity operations and assembly, almost all of them suffer from the lack of full autonomy of the spacecraft simulators due to the use of external navigation systems. To address that issue, this thesis presents the research done to design a high-speed vision-based navigation system for the under-development 15 × 15 feet testbed facility, equipped with a star field overhead, at the Aerospace Innovation and Research center, Ryerson University. In this thesis, the set of image processing and computer vision algorithms, required to process the captured images, and extract the desired information from the image, is discussed. Also, the three most utilized state estimators in navigation systems, the Extended Kalman Filter (EKF), the Unscented Kalman Filter (UKF), and the Particle Filter (PF), are presented. Upon the evaluation of their performances throughout different scenarios, the EKF is chosen as the best-fitted filter for this application. To select the most appropriate computational architecture, the available computer architectures are reviewed. The combination of the parallel and serial architectures for the implementation of the algorithms is selected. This thesis also proposes an FPGA design for the implementation of the image processing and computer vision algorithms and an interface between the hardware and software to satisfy the accuracy and processing speed requirements. Ultimately, the efficacy and efficiency of the design are validated throughout the simulations and experiments using the testbed and star field.

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“…Being a popular research area, the University of Maryland has built the SCAMP testbed for semi-autonomous operations in a neutral buoyancy medium [57], while the 1.2. LITERATURE REVIEW Figure 1.6: Universita La Sapienza -PINOCCHIO [71] Synchronized Position Hold Engage Reorient Experimental Satellites (SPHERES) was developed in the MIT Space Systems Laboratory, which have been operating in 6DOF in the International Space Station (ISS) where the microgravity environment is at disposal.…”

Section: Earlier Testbeds For the Experimentation Of Gnandc Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Autonomous Navigation System Design For The Free-Floating Spacecraft on a Planar Testbed

Tavana¹

2023

Preprint

0

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

As the International Space Exploration Coordination Group (ISECG) states, there is a growing interest in the building of a new Deep Space Habitat (DSH) near the moon, providing a microgravity research laboratory, and a refueling and maintenance stop for lunar and asteroid missions. The development of such a station requires the on-orbit self-assembly technology of large space structures due to the large size of the structures, long-distance, and harsh environment for human assembly. Considering the need for a robust and accurate control system to perform the on-orbit self-assembly task, ground testbed facilities are playing a crucial role to evaluate and validate the efficacy and efficiency of the newly-developed control systems. Although many testbeds have already been developed around the world for many purposes, including proximity operations and assembly, almost all of them suffer from the lack of full autonomy of the spacecraft simulators due to the use of external navigation systems. To address that issue, this thesis presents the research done to design a high-speed vision-based navigation system for the under-development 15 × 15 feet testbed facility, equipped with a star field overhead, at the Aerospace Innovation and Research center, Ryerson University. In this thesis, the set of image processing and computer vision algorithms, required to process the captured images, and extract the desired information from the image, is discussed. Also, the three most utilized state estimators in navigation systems, the Extended Kalman Filter (EKF), the Unscented Kalman Filter (UKF), and the Particle Filter (PF), are presented. Upon the evaluation of their performances throughout different scenarios, the EKF is chosen as the best-fitted filter for this application. To select the most appropriate computational architecture, the available computer architectures are reviewed. The combination of the parallel and serial architectures for the implementation of the algorithms is selected. This thesis also proposes an FPGA design for the implementation of the image processing and computer vision algorithms and an interface between the hardware and software to satisfy the accuracy and processing speed requirements. Ultimately, the efficacy and efficiency of the design are validated throughout the simulations and experiments using the testbed and star field.

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“…Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute published a good survey of 6 DOF test beds and a description of their design(Gallardo, Bevilacqua, & Rasmussen, ). The SCAMP test bed was developed at the University of Maryland for semiautonomous operation in a neutral buoyancy tank(McGhan, Besser, Sanner, & Atkins, ). The Naval Research Laboratory's Spacecraft Robotics Laboratory has an excellent test bed of 6 DOF dynamics and on‐orbit lighting effects (Obermark et al., ) for servicing spacecraft.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Open Research Facility for Vision‐Based Navigation Onboard the International Space Station

Tweddle

¹

,

Setterfield

²

,

Saenz-Otero

³

et al. 2015

Journal of Field Robotics

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This paper describes the VERTIGO Goggles, a hardware upgrade to the SPHERES satellites that enables visionbased navigation research in the 6 degree-of-freedom, microgravity environment of the International Space Station (ISS). The Goggles include stereo cameras, an embedded x86 computer, a high-speed wireless communications system, and the associated electromechanical and software systems. The Goggles were designed to be a modular, expandable, and upgradable "open research test bed" that have been used for a variety of other experiments by external researchers. In February 2013, the Goggles successfully completed a hardware checkout on the ISS and was used for initial vision-based navigation research. This checkout included a successful camera calibration by an astronaut onboard the ISS. This paper describes the requirements, design, and operation of this test bed as well as the experimental results of its first checkout operations. C 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

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Semi-Autonomous Inspection with a Neutral Buoyancy Free-Flyer

Cited by 10 publications

References 9 publications

Autonomous Navigation System Design For The Free-Floating Spacecraft on a Planar Testbed

Autonomous Navigation System Design For The Free-Floating Spacecraft on a Planar Testbed

Autonomous Navigation System Design For The Free-Floating Spacecraft on a Planar Testbed

An Open Research Facility for Vision‐Based Navigation Onboard the International Space Station

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