CubeSat-CDT: A Cross-Domain Dataset for 6-DoF Trajectory Estimation of a Symmetric Spacecraft

in Proceedings of the 17th European Conference on Computer Vision Workshops (ECCVW 2022) (2022)

This paper introduces a new cross-domain dataset, CubeSat- CDT, that includes 21 trajectories of a real CubeSat acquired in a labora- tory setup, combined with 65 trajectories generated using two ... [more ▼]

This paper introduces a new cross-domain dataset, CubeSat- CDT, that includes 21 trajectories of a real CubeSat acquired in a labora- tory setup, combined with 65 trajectories generated using two rendering engines – i.e. Unity and Blender. The three data sources incorporate the same 1U CubeSat and share the same camera intrinsic parameters. In ad- dition, we conduct experiments to show the characteristics of the dataset using a novel and efficient spacecraft trajectory estimation method, that leverages the information provided from the three data domains. Given a video input of a target spacecraft, the proposed end-to-end approach re- lies on a Temporal Convolutional Network that enforces the inter-frame coherence of the estimated 6-Degree-of-Freedom spacecraft poses. The pipeline is decomposed into two stages; first, spatial features are ex- tracted from each frame in parallel; second, these features are lifted to the space of camera poses while preserving temporal information. Our re- sults highlight the importance of addressing the domain gap problem to propose reliable solutions for close-range autonomous relative navigation between spacecrafts. Since the nature of the data used during training impacts directly the performance of the final solution, the CubeSat-CDT dataset is provided to advance research into this direction. [less ▲]

Leveraging Temporal Information for 3D Trajectory Estimation of Space Objects

in Proceedings of the IEEE/CVF International Conference on Computer Vision (ICCV) Workshops (2021, October)

LSPnet: A 2D Localization-oriented Spacecraft Pose Estimation Neural Network

in Proceedings of Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Workshops (2021, June)

Being capable of estimating the pose of uncooperative objects in space has been proposed as a key asset for enabling safe close-proximity operations such as space rendezvous, in-orbit servicing and active ... [more ▼]

Being capable of estimating the pose of uncooperative objects in space has been proposed as a key asset for enabling safe close-proximity operations such as space rendezvous, in-orbit servicing and active debris removal. Usual approaches for pose estimation involve classical computer vision-based solutions or the application of Deep Learning (DL) techniques. This work explores a novel DL-based methodology, using Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs), for estimating the pose of uncooperative spacecrafts. Contrary to other approaches, the proposed CNN directly regresses poses without needing any prior 3D information. Moreover, bounding boxes of the spacecraft in the image are predicted in a simple, yet efficient manner. The performed experiments show how this work competes with the state-of-the-art in uncooperative spacecraft pose estimation, including works which require 3D information as well as works which predict bounding boxes through sophisticated CNNs. [less ▲]

Detection & Identification of On-Orbit Objects Using Machine Learning

in European Conference on Space Debris (2021), 8(1),