A software architecture is discussed to develop, run, and test novel autonomous visual spacecraft navigation and control methods in a realistic simulation. This architecture harnesses two main components: a high-fidelity, faster-than-real-time, astrodynamics simulation framework; and a sister software package to dynamically visualize the simulation environment. Maneuvers such as fly-bys and orbit insertions occur over short periods of time and must occur autonomously. Yet, there are no open-source software packages that provide fully coupled spacecraft environments and Flight Software (FSW) enabling Optical Navigation (OpNav) mission scenarios. The presented tool consists of the Basilisk^∗ astrodynamics framework interfacing with a Unity-based visualization Vizard that provides a synthetic image stream of a camera sensor. This modular and extensible setup allows optical guidance, navigation and control (GNC) algorithms to be run in a closed-loop format purely in software. The optical measurements are generated in the visualization and passed to the simulation, allowing for real-time control and decision making. This Vizard software has the ability to import shape-models, planet maps, and move into an instrument point-of-view. Paired with open-source image processing libraries, these combined components provide all the necessary pieces to fully simulate autonomous, closed-loop, OpNav scenarios in a faster-than-real-time configuration. This allows for progress in the autonomy sector, as full-fledged FSW can be tested in a real flight environment. Furthermore, this enables more realistic and extensive testing of the software, which in turn increases reliability of the GNC methods as they are refined. This paper presents the Basilisk and Vizard interface architecture, its performance, and develops a example scenario. The image processing methods are displayed and the visualization scenes are validated for pointing purposes, which in turns allows to develop an autonomous pointing algorithm developed in this software environment.

讨论了一种软件架构，用于在现实仿真中开发，运行和测试新颖的自主视觉太空飞船导航和控制方法。该架构利用了两个主要组件：高保真，比实时快的天体动力学仿真框架；以及一个用于动态可视化仿真环境的姊妹软件包。诸如飞越和插入轨道之类的演习是在短时间内发生的，必须自动进行。但是，还没有开源软件包提供完全耦合的航天器环境和支持光学导航（OpNav）任务场景的飞行软件（FSW）。所展示的工具包括Basilisk ^∗天体动力学框架与基于Unity的可视化接口提供摄像机传感器合成图像流的Vizard。这种模块化且可扩展的设置允许光学引导，导航和控制（GNC）算法完全以软件形式以闭环格式运行。光学测量值在可视化文件中生成并传递给仿真，从而可以进行实时控制和决策。这个蜥蜴该软件具有导入形状模型，行星图并移入仪器视点的能力。这些组合的组件与开源图像处理库配合使用，提供了所有必要的组件，以比实时配置更快的速度完全模拟自主，闭环，OpNav场景。由于可以在真实的飞行环境中测试成熟的FSW，因此可以在自治领域取得进步。此外，这可以对软件进行更真实，更广泛的测试，从而在改进GNC方法时提高可靠性。本文介绍了蜥蜴和面颊接口体系结构，其性能以及开发示例场景。显示图像处理方法并验证可视化场景是否达到指示目的，这进而允许开发在此软件环境中开发的自主指示算法。