Visual guidance system for satellite rendezvous applications

In this study, a visual guidance system concept is developed to be utilized in satellite rendezvous applications which involves estimating the location, orientation, linear and angular velocities of a target object (with a predefined shape) with respect to the main object. The visual guidance system relies on the reference markers on the target or extracted SURF feature points. Stereo Vision System and Optimal Rigid Body Transformation method is employed based on reference points on the target in order to estimate 3D location and orientation data. A linear Kalman Filter and an Extended Kalman Filter are used to track the target object and estimate linear and angular velocities.