Related papers: Real-Time, Flight-Ready, Non-Cooperative Spacecraf…

On-board estimation of the pose of an uncooperative target spacecraft is an essential task for future on-orbit servicing and close-proximity formation flying missions. However, two issues hinder reliable on-board monocular vision based pose…

Accurate real-time pose estimation of spacecraft or object in space is a key capability necessary for on-orbit spacecraft servicing and assembly tasks. Pose estimation of objects in space is more challenging than for objects on Earth due to…

This work introduces the Spacecraft Pose Network (SPN) for on-board estimation of the pose, i.e., the relative position and attitude, of a known non-cooperative spacecraft using monocular vision. In contrast to other state-of-the-art pose…

On-orbit proximity operations in space rendezvous, docking and debris removal require precise and robust 6D pose estimation under a wide range of lighting conditions and against highly textured background, i.e., the Earth. This paper…

Optical cameras are gaining popularity as the suitable sensor for relative navigation in space due to their attractive sizing, power and cost properties when compared to conventional flight hardware or costly laser-based systems. However, a…

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…

Estimating the pose of an uncooperative spacecraft is an important computer vision problem for enabling the deployment of automatic vision-based systems in orbit, with applications ranging from on-orbit servicing to space debris removal.…

This work presents a novel Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) architecture and a training procedure to enable robust and accurate pose estimation of a noncooperative spacecraft. First, a new CNN architecture is introduced that has scored a…

6D object pose estimation is a fundamental problem in computer vision. Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) have recently proven to be capable of predicting reliable 6D pose estimates even from monocular images. Nonetheless, CNNs are…

In the robotic industry, specular and textureless metallic components are ubiquitous. The 6D pose estimation of such objects with only a monocular RGB camera is difficult because of the absence of rich texture features. Furthermore, the…

Accurate satellite pose estimation is crucial for autonomous guidance, navigation, and control (GNC) systems in in-orbit servicing (IOS) missions. This paper explores the impact of different tasks within a multi-task learning (MTL)…

The reduced cost and computational and calibration requirements of monocular cameras make them ideal positioning sensors for mobile robots, albeit at the expense of any meaningful depth measurement. Solutions proposed by some scholars to…

Pose estimation of an uncooperative space resident object is a key asset towards autonomy in close proximity operations. In this context monocular cameras are a valuable solution because of their low system requirements. However, the…

We address the estimation of the 6D pose of an unknown target spacecraft relative to a monocular camera, a key step towards the autonomous rendezvous and proximity operations required by future Active Debris Removal missions. We present a…

This work presents Spacecraft Pose Network v3 (SPNv3), a Neural Network (NN) for monocular pose estimation of a known, non-cooperative target spacecraft. SPNv3 is designed and trained to be computationally efficient while providing…

Spacecraft pose estimation is an essential computer vision application that can improve the autonomy of in-orbit operations. An ESA/Stanford competition brought out solutions that seem hardly compatible with the constraints imposed on…

Recent interest in on-orbit servicing and Active Debris Removal (ADR) missions have driven the need for technologies to enable non-cooperative rendezvous manoeuvres. Such manoeuvres put heavy burden on the perception capabilities of a…

6D object pose estimation is a fundamental yet challenging problem in computer vision. Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) have recently proven to be capable of predicting reliable 6D pose estimates even under monocular settings.…

This paper introduces a deep transformer network for estimating the relative 6D pose of a Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) with respect to a ship using monocular images. A synthetic dataset of ship images is created and annotated with 2D…

Object pose estimation is a core perception task that enables, for example, object grasping and scene understanding. The widely available, inexpensive and high-resolution RGB sensors and CNNs that allow for fast inference based on this…