Defining the orientation of the stand platform for semi-natural modeling of the dynamics of a nanosatellite relative motion

Abstract

A technique for determining the orientation of the stand platform for semi-natural modeling of angular motion dynamics relative to the center of mass of a nanosatellite is proposed. The developed technique is based on the use of a stereo camera consisting of an infrared camera and a color camera of the visible spectral range. Each of these cameras is designed, respectively, for the formation of infrared and color images on processed photographs. The operation of both cameras is based on the use of a system of active optical markers emitting in the infrared and visible ranges. Based on the image taken by the infrared camera, the centers of optical markers are determined using the Hough transform. By the same method, extraneous artefacts are filtered out in the image obtained by a color camera by evaluating the fundamental matrix. After the color of the marker from the color image is determined, this feature is added to the obtained coordinates of the markers from the infrared image. After that, a triple of vectors is formed in the coordinate system of the stand platform and its orientation is determined in the coordinate system of the infrared camera. According to results of semi-linear modeling, the orientation error does not exceed 0.5°.