VISION-BASED RELATIVE NAVIGATION USING 3D SCALE SPACE THEORY

Objects that are far away often appear small and unresolved in optical imagery. Conversely, objects appear fully resolved when closer. Thus, during an on-orbit rendezvous that begins far away and concludes with a docking, it is not uncommon for the relative navigation system to be challenged with processing unresolved, partially resolved, and fully resolved imagery. While a great deal of prior work exists on processing images containing unresolved and fully resolved objects, fundamentally different techniques are used in the processing of these data. Therefore, this manuscript explores the use of scale space theory and multi-scale 3D modeling as a means for unifying the image processing approach across all scales during a complete spacecraft rendezvous sequence.