Aircraft Flight Control Using Subpixel Localization

A star navigation system comprising:

• a set of computer-readable storage media;
• and
• program instructions stored on the set of computer-readable storage media to perform operations comprising:
• receiving an input image in which the stars are present from a camera system for a vehicle;
• and
• generating a subpixel probability image from the input image using a machine learning model system trained to generate the subpixel probability image from the input image, wherein the input image is comprised of pixels and the subpixel probability image is comprised of the subpixel coordinates describing subpixel locations having probabilities of a presence of the stars;
• and
• determining the subpixel coordinates for the subpixel locations of the stars from the subpixel probability image.

A method for controlling a movement of a vehicle, the method comprising:

• receiving an input image in which stars are present from a camera system for the vehicle;
• generating a subpixel probability image from the input image in which the stars are present using a machine learning model system, wherein the input image is comprised of pixels and the subpixel probability image is comprised of subpixel coordinates describing subpixel locations having probabilities of a presence of the stars;
• determining the subpixel coordinates for the subpixel locations of the stars from the subpixel probability image;
• determining an orientation of the vehicle using the subpixel coordinates for the subpixel locations of the stars;
• and
• controlling the movement of the vehicle using the orientation of the vehicle.

A computer program product for locating a star, the computer program product comprising a computer-readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions executable by a computer system to cause the computer system to perform a method of:

• receiving an input image in which the stars are present from a camera system for a vehicle;
• receiving subpixel coordinates for subpixel locations of the stars in response to sending the input image into a machine learning model system, wherein the machine learning model system has been trained to generate a subpixel probability image from the input image in which stars are present, wherein the input image is comprised of pixels and the subpixel probability image is comprised of subpixel coordinates describing subpixel locations having probabilities of a presence of the stars;
• and
• generating the subpixel coordinates for the subpixel locations of the stars from the subpixel probability image.