Pose estimation of non-cooperative spacecraft based on collaboration of space-ground and rectangle feature

Abstract

In space attack and defense, on-orbital servicing, pose estimation of unknown (non-cooperative) spacecrafts is one of the most important conditions when taking the attack, defense and servicing measures. However, as for non-cooperative spacecrafts, the imaging characteristics of the features and the geometric constraints among the features are unknown, it is almost impossible to achieve target extraction, recognition, tracking, and pose solving automatically. To solve this technical problem, the paper proposes a method to determine the pose of non-cooperative spacecrafts based on collaboration of space-ground and rectangle feature. It employs a camera and rectangular features to achieve these operations above mentioned automatically. Experimental results indicate that both the position errors and the attitude errors satisfy the requirements of pose estimation during the tracking, approaching and flying round the non-cooperative spacecraft. The method provides a new solution for pose estimation of the non-cooperative target, and has potential significance for space-based attack and defense and on-orbital servicing.