Generation of fused visible and thermal-infrared images for uncooperative spacecraft proximity navigation

• DOI: 10.1016/j.asr.2023.03.022
• Publication Date: 2023-03-24T16:37:31Z
• Authors: Gaia Letizia Civardi; Michele Bechini; Matteo Quirino; Alessandro Colombo; Margherita Piccinin; Michèle Lavagna
• Keywords: Robustness

State-of-the-art techniques for vision-based relative navigation rely on images acquired in the visible spectral band. Consequently, accuracy and robustness of is strongly influenced by illumination conditions. The exploitation thermal-infrared purposes studied present paper, as a possible solution to improve close proximity with target spacecraft. Thermal-infrared depend thermal radiation emitted target, hence, they are independent from light conditions; however, suffer poorer texture lower contrast respect ones. This paper proposes pixel-level image fusion overcome limitations two types images. source merged into more informative one, retaining strengths distinguished sensing modalities. contribution this work twofold: firstly, realistic infrared rendering tool artificial targets implemented; secondly, different visible-thermal assessed through qualitative quantitative performance metrics ease subsequent processing step. presents comprehensive evaluation best on-board implementation, paving way development multispectral end-to-end chain.