Apparatus and method for celestial navigation using region of interest subsampling
AssigneeHoneywell International Inc.
InventorsTrevor Keith Stephens, Ross Merritt, Brian Schipper
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Techniques are disclosed for improving daylight performance of a star tracker. A region of interest (ROI) within a field of view of sky is obtained. The region of interest is divided into sub-ROIs. Sub-ROIs including a candidate celestial object are identified. An angular velocity of each candidate celestial object is determined. The known celestial object is a candidate celestial object identified as having a angular velocity, during a time period, that is within a range of angular velocities about a known angular velocity associated with the known celestial object.
Claims20
A method of tracking a known celestial object with a star tracker configured to be on a body, the method comprising:
- obtaining a region of interest (ROI) within a field of view of sky;
- dividing the region of interest into N integer sub-ROIs;
- identifying each sub-ROI including a candidate celestial object;
- determining an angular velocity of each candidate celestial object;
- and
- identifying the known celestial object that is a candidate celestial object having an angular velocity, during a time period, that is within a range of angular velocities about a known angular velocity associated with the known celestial object.
A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a program causing at least one processor to execute a process to track a known celestial object with a star tracker configured to be on a body, the process comprising:
- obtaining a region of interest (ROI) within a field of view of sky;
- dividing the region of interest into N integer sub-ROIs;
- identifying each sub-ROI including a candidate celestial object;
- determining an angular velocity of each candidate celestial object;
- and
- identifying the known celestial object that is a candidate celestial object having an angular velocity, during a time period, that is within a range of angular velocities about a known angular velocity associated with the known celestial object.
An apparatus for tracking a known celestial object with a star tracker configured to be on a body, comprising:
- processing circuitry configured to be coupled to an inertial measurement unit;
- and
- the star tracker communicatively coupled to the processing circuitry;
- wherein the processing circuitry is configured to:
- obtain a region of interest (ROI) within a field of view of sky of the star tracker;
- divide the region of interest into N integer sub-ROIs;
- identify each sub-ROI including a candidate celestial object;
- determine an angular velocity of each candidate celestial object;
- and
- identify the known celestial object that is a candidate celestial object having an angular velocity, during a time period, that is within a range of angular velocities about a known angular velocity associated with the known celestial object.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.