Title :
Attitude determination using a photon counting star tracker
Author :
D´Angelo, Michael ; Linares, Richard
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Comput. Sci. & Eng., Univ. at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, USA
Abstract :
This paper describes a path toward the development of theory for using a photon counting camera as a star tracker for spacecraft attitude estimation. The benefit of using a photon counting camera is that star data can be sampled at a faster rate while allowing one to measure very dim stars, increasing the number of stars available for attitude estimation. The development of a noise model is discussed and an algorithm to process raw data is shown. An attitude estimation method is discussed and simulated data is shown. A simulated star tracker for attitude estimation is shown and attitude estimation results are shown.
Keywords :
attitude measurement; cameras; image sensors; photon counting; space vehicles; noise model; photon counting camera; photon counting star tracker; raw data processing; spacecraft attitude estimation method; Charge coupled devices; Estimation; Photonics; Position measurement; Signal to noise ratio; Vectors;
Conference_Titel :
Image Processing Workshop (WNYIPW), 2011 IEEE Western New York
Conference_Location :
New York, NY
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4673-0420-7
DOI :
10.1109/WNYIPW.2011.6122885
