P. Bourqui, B. Harnisch, A. Bergeron "Optical correlator for real-time rendez-vous and docking" AIAA 57th International Astronautical Congress, IAC, : 4918-4926, 2006
Abstract: Rendez-vous and docking consists in synchronizing and joining together two vehicles or a vehicle and a docking station. These applications can be found both on earth and in space. Furthermore, numerous robotic vision tasks, such as grasping, are based exactly the same operations as those required in rendez-vous and docking. In these kinds of application, the identification of a region of interest (ROI), its exact position, its angle of rotation and to some extent, its distance is needed. The precision required for those applications is a supplementary constraint that adds to the usual processing rate requirement. Optical correlation provides fast recognition and positioning capabilities. Its inherent parallelism can provide massive computing power with potential weight and power consumption reduction compared to its electronic counterpart. With suitable algorithms, the brute force of the optical correlator can be further enhanced to provide rotation angle and scale evaluation. Scale evaluation can eventually return distances information. Fast positioning parameter assessment could provide a better feedback for rendez-vous and docking manoeuvres and improve operation reliability.
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