A highly intelligent visual guidance navigation system that can autonomously identify target space debris and realize a controlled rendezvous maneuver is required to mitigate space debris. In this ...

Low-cost and high-performance visual guidance and navigation system for space debris removal

https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/tastj/12/0/12_TJSAS-D-13-00069/_pdf

Breakdown Phenomena in SD Cards Exposed to Proton Irradiation

Visual images are effective tools for monitoring the condition of spacecraft. In this article, we developed a low-cost, low impact, compact visual monitoring system using commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) devices to perform critical situation monitoring of the Hayabusa2 touchdown mission. The in situ performance of all devices for the touchdown mission, such as the field programmable gate array, complementary metal oxide semiconductor image sensor, analog decoder, and first-in-first-out memory, was examined in terms of the image capturing time and the tuning of image sensors. The in situ image capturing results indicated that these devices can be successfully used in deep space applications. Our findings can provide a reference for the use of COTS devices in deep space applications.

Deep Space In Situ Imaging Results of Commercial Off-the-Shelf Visual Monitoring System Aboard the Hayabusa2 Spacecraft

Due to advances in mission complexity and increased requirements for autonomous control of small satellites, high-level computing performance of on-board computers, as well as the necessary software implementation to maintain essential functionality, is more frequently required for small satellites. To satisfy these requirements, we developed a high-performance and compact on-board computer for micro and nano-satellites using commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components including a structure to increase the reliability by sharing software to enhance reusability. The capability of small satellites can be dramatically improved by having common standards for high computing performance and a lowcost platform for the on-board computers. Additionally, the mission potential of small satellites can then be expanded. When the same platform is utilized recursively, the reliability of the platform will increase through repeated verification. In this paper, we describe the concept of a high-performance, low-cost on-board computer system using COTS devices, the sharing of software resources, and a practical on-orbit evaluation of the system.

Development of High-Performance Compact On-Board Computer for Micro/Nano-Satellites with Software Resource Sharing Framework

The design and development of image processing units (IPUs) has traditionally involved trade-offs between cost, real-time properties, portability, and ease of programming. A standard PC can be turned into an IPU relatively easily with the help of readily available computer vision libraries, but the end result will not be portable, and may be costly. Similarly, one can use field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) as the base for an IPU, but they are expensive and require hardware-level programming. Finally, general purpose embedded hardware tends to be under-powered and difficult to develop for due to poor support for running advanced software. In recent years a new option has surfaced: single-board computers (SBCs). These generally inexpensive embedded devices would be attractive as a platform on which to develop IPUs due to their inherent portability and good compatibility with existing computer vision (CV) software. However, whether their performance is sufficient for real-time image processing has thus far remained an open question. Most SBCs (especially the ultra-low-cost ones which we target) do not offer CUDA/OpenCL support which makes it difficult to port GPU-based CV applications. In order to utilize the full power of the SBCs, their GPUs need to be used. In our attempts at doing this, we have observed that the CV algorithms which an IPU uses have to be re-designed according to the OpenGL support available on these devices. This work presents a framework where a selection of CV algorithms have been designed in a way that they optimize performance on SBCs while still maintaining portability across devices which offer OpenGL ES 2.0 support. Furthermore, this paper demonstrates an IPU based on a representative SBC (namely the Raspberry Pi) along with two CV applications backed by it. The robustness of the applications as well as the performance of the IPU are evaluated to show that SPCs can be used to build IPUs capable of producing accurate data in real time. This opens the possibilities of large scale economically deployment of vision system especially in remote and barren lands. Finally, the software developed as a part of this work has been released open source.

Image Processing Units on Ultra-low-cost Embedded Hardware: Algorithmic Optimizations for Real-time Performance

It is becoming imperative to have visual capabilities for space activities. There are increasing opportunities to use visual images coupled with image processing technologies for spacecraft sensing and control. To fill this need, we have developed a small, low-cost, high-performance image acquisition and processing unit (HP-IMAP), which uses commercial off-the-shelf technologies. In 2010, the HP-IMAP was launched to monitor a deployable structure. Herein, we describe the HP-IMAP and discuss its qualification tests.

N. Sakamoto

Papers

High-performance image acquisition & processing unit fabricated using COTS technologies

A high-performance image acquisition and processing system for IKAROS fabricated using FPGA and free software technologies