On-orbit experiment of vision-based motion estimation and tracking of tumbling object in space

Abstract

Capture of tumbling objects in space will be one of the important on-orbit service technologies in the future. It requires a series of technologies such as camera-image tracking of the target, target attitude motion estimation, and attitude control of the chaser to approach and grasp the target. Based on theoretical and simulation-based research, the University of Tokyo successfully performed an on-orbit experiment of some of these technologies on a Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's (JAXA, formerly NASDA) microsatellite named "m-LABSAT." In this paper, the objectives and procedures of these experiments, the control and estimation algorithms, and the results are described. © 2007 The Japan Society for Aeronautical and Space Sciences.