TRACKING SYSTEM APPLICATIONS OF EXPONENTIAL SENSOR ARRAY VISION SYSTEM

SPACECRAFT TERMINAL RENDEZVOUS, STATION-KEEPING, DOCKING, AND ROBOTICS IN SPACE REQUIRE PRECISION MANEUVERING OVER DISTANCES RANGING FROM HUNDREDS OF METERS TO ZERO. FAST AND ACCURATE POSITIONAL FEEDBACK IS DIFFICULT TO ACHIEVE OVER SUCH EXTREME RANGES WITHIN WEIGHT AND POWER CONSTRAINTSOF CURRENT EQUIPMENT. A NEW PASSIVE VISUAL SYSTEM IS PROPOSED WHICH EXPLOITS EXPONENTIAL SENSOR ARRAY COORDINATES AND SIMPLIFIED IMAGE PROCESSING HARDWARE. THE COMPUTATIONAL FUNCTIONS OF THIS SYSTEM CLOSELY MATCH THE FAMILY OF IMAGE TRANSFORMATIONS CHARACTERISTIC OF 3-D MOTION IN SPACECRAFT MANEUVERING APPLICATIONS. THE SYSTEM PROVIDES WIDE FIELD OF VIEW, HIGH RESOLUTION IMAGERY, AND SIMPLIFIED PERSPECTIVE COMPUTATIONS WHICH YIELD FASTER POSITIONAL FEEDBACK WITH LESS HARDWARE THAN EXISTING APPROACHES. PHASE I TASKS CONSIST OF ANALYSIS OF SENSOR GEOMETRY AND OPTICAL PARAMETERS WITH RESPECT TO APPLICATION ENVIRONMENT, SIMULATION OF IMAGERY, SOFTWARE DEMONSTRATION OF APPLICATIONALGORITHMS, PLANNING AND DOCUMENTING A PROTOTYPE TO BE BUILT IN PHASE II, AND PROVIDING A PRELIMINARY SPEC OF A CUSTOM VLSI FLIGHT SYSTEM TO BE BUILT IN PHASE III.