Autonomous satellite rendezvous and docking using lidar and model based vision
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Servicing satellites on-orbit requires ability to rendezvous and dock by an unmanned spacecraft with no or minimum human input. Novel imaging sensors and computer vision technologies are required to detect a target spacecraft at a distance of several kilometers and to guide the approaching spacecraft to contact. Current optical systems operate at much shorter distances, provide only bearing and range towards the target, or rely on visual targets. Emergence of novel LIDAR technologies and computer vision algorithms will lead to a new generation of rendezvous and docking systems in the near future. Such systems will be capable of autonomously detecting a target satellite at a distance of a few kilometers, estimating its bearing, range and relative orientation under virtually any illumination, and in any satellite pose. At MDA Space Missions we have developed a proof-of-concept vision system that uses a scanning LIDAR to estimate pose of a known satellite. First, the vision system detects a target satellite, and estimates its bearing and range. Next, the system estimates the full pose of the satellite using a 3D model. Finally, the system tracks satellite pose with high accuracy and update rate. Estimated pose provides information where the docking port is located even if the port is not visible and enables selecting more efficient flight trajectory. The proof-of-concept vision system has been integrated with a commercial time-of-flight LIDAR and tested using a moving scaled satellite replica in the MDA Vision Testbed.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".