Abstract
Infrared Earth sensors are widely used in attitude-determination and control systems of satellites. The main deficiency of static infrared Earth sensors is the requirement of a small field of view (FOV). A typical FOV for a static infrared Earth sensor is about 20° to 30°, which may not be sufficient for low-Earth-orbiting micro-satellites. A novel compact infrared Earth sensor with an FOV of nearly 180° is developed here. The Earth sensor comprises a panoramic annular lens (PAL) and an off-the-shelf camera with an uncooled complementary-metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) infrared sensor. PAL is used to augment FOV so as to obtain a complete infrared image of the Earth from low-Earth-orbit. An algorithm is developed to compensate for the distortion caused by PAL and to calculate the vector of the Earth. The new infrared Earth sensor is compact with low power consumption and high precision. Simulated images and on-orbit infrared images obtained via the micro-satellite ZDPS-2 are used to assess the performance of the new infrared Earth sensor. Experiments show that the accuracy of the Earth sensor is about 0.032°.
摘要
红外地球敏感器广泛应用于卫星姿态确定和控制系统中. 静态红外地球敏感器的主要缺点是视场较小, 其典型视场约为20°至30°, 可能不适用于近地轨道的微型卫星. 设计了一种新型的小型红外地球敏感器, 其视场接近180°. 该地球敏感器包括全景环形透镜 (PAL) 和红外CMOS传感器. PAL镜头用于增强视场, 从而从近地轨道获得完整的地球红外图像, 据此提出一种补偿PAL引起的畸变和计算地球矢量的算法. 新型红外地球敏感器结构紧凑, 功耗低, 精度高. 利用ZDPS-2微小卫星获得在轨红外图像和模拟图像, 评估新型红外地球敏感器的性能, 实验表明其精度约为0.032°.
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Hao WANG designed the research. Zhi-yuan WANG and Ben-dong WANG acquired and processed the data. Hao WANG drafted the manuscript. Zhong-he JIN and John L. CRASSIDIS helped organize the manuscript. Hao WANG, Zhi-yuan WANG, and Ben-dong WANG revised and finalized the paper.
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Hao WANG, Zhi-yuan WANG, Ben-dong WANG, Zhong-he JIN, and John L. CRASSIDIS declare that they have no conflict of interest.
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Project supported by the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars, China (No. 6152403)
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Wang, H., Wang, Zy., Wang, Bd. et al. Infrared Earth sensor with a large field of view for low-Earth-orbiting micro-satellites. Front Inform Technol Electron Eng 22, 262–271 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1631/FITEE.1900358
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1631/FITEE.1900358