Methods and systems for orbit estimation of a satellite
AssigneeThe Aerospace Corporation
InventorDerek Chen
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Disclosed herein are systems and methods for estimating an orbit of a satellite using only images captured by an onboard camera of the satellite. One of the disclosed methods includes: capturing a plurality of images using an onboard camera of the satellite; determining the trajectory, loop closure metrics, and the relative geographic position of the satellite using the plurality of images captured by the onboard camera; and estimating the orbit of the satellite based at least on the determined trajectory, loop closure metrics, and the relative geographic position of the satellite.
Claims20
A method for estimating an orbit of a satellite, the method comprising:
- capturing a plurality of images from a camera on the satellite;
- determining a relative motion of the satellite by performing visual odometry on a first set of one or more images from the plurality of captured images;
- generating loop closure measurements by comparing a second set of images from the plurality of captured images;
- determining a relative geographic position of the satellite by detecting geographic anchor points of a third set of one or more images from the plurality of captured images;
- and
- estimating, using an estimator, the orbit of the satellite based at least on one or more the determined relative motion, orbital period, and the relative geographic position of the satellite.
A system for estimating an orbit of a satellite, the system comprising:
- an onboard camera of the satellite configured to capture a plurality of images of surfaces of Earth;
- a visual odometry module configured to determine relative motion of the satellite by performing visual odometry on a first set of one or more images captured by the onboard camera;
- an orbital revisit module configured to determine loop closure metrics;
- a map matching module configured to determine a relative geographic position of the satellite by detecting geographic anchor points of a third set of one or more images from the plurality of captured images;
- and
- an orbit estimating module configured to estimate the orbit of the satellite based at least on one or more of the relative motion trajectory, loop closure metrics, and the relative geographic position of the satellite.
A method for generating a 3D reconstruction map, the method comprising:
- obtaining, using a simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) algorithm, relative motion data from a plurality of images captured from an onboard camera of a satellite;
- map matching features of the plurality of captured images with features of geo-registered images to determine one or more geographic anchor points;
- detecting a loop closure event based on features matching of two sets of images indicating that the satellite passed over a generally same geographic location and generating relative motion data for each of the two set of images;
- and
- generating the 3D reconstruction map based at least on the relative motion data from the SLAM algorithm, one or more geographic anchor points, and relative motion data of the two sets of images of the loop closure event.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.