Vision-based Motion Parameter Measurement Methods And Experimental Study Of The Satellite Formation Flight Simulator

The development of high-tech has maintained a high speed in the aerospace field since the 21st century. Multiple spacecraft flown in formation can potentially provide several advantages over larger traditional satellites systems. As a new application,The overall concept is that a formation of smaller satellites can gather not only more data, but higher quality data than a single monolithic satellite. The Formation Flying Testbed (FFT) is a critical technology for planned and future missions of NASA, ESA and other national space and defense agencies. The research of the External Visual Measurement System (EVMS), as a measurement method of the FFT, is of great significance and extensive applications in future.Based on the Formation Flying Testbed,this paper describes the design and configuration of the EVMS for measuring the position and attitude of the satellite formation flight simulator. In this framework, a vision-based motion parameter measurement program,using only a monocular camera as sensing,for planned is implemented, after reviewing the domestic and international development of FFT and visual measurement, comparing a variety of visual measurement methods and considering the environment restriction. The main component of the facility includes a measurement camera with lens, three measurement markers and an operational console. The facility offers a truly integrated position and attitude determination system for experimental testing. Meanwhile, the algorithms of sub-pixel precision position based on gray square weighted, intrinsic parameters calibration of measurement camera and monocular position and attitude measurement are well studied. On the basis of the above, the dissertation was focused on the experimental study on the LEDs'location accuracy, static repeatable accuracy of the measurement markers and dynamic measurement accuracy of the system. The presented results validate the algorithms and demonstrate the capability of the test bed.