MicroADS Spacecraft Attitude Determination System Instrument Software

为了正确运行，航天器需要能够确定它们相对于其他一个或多个物体的方位(“姿态”)。苏塞克斯大学发明了一种全新的姿态确定系统(称为微型ADS)。它的工作原理与现有仪器不同，并受益于比同类系统更宽的视野和更好的精度。到目前为止，该仪器的大部分工作都是硬件开发。这一新的创新奖学金项目将开发所需的计算机软件(图像处理技术)，以将硬件的输出转换为方向向量，指示用于确定姿态的光源的方向。这个方向向量，再加上仪器的几何形状和仪器在航天器上的位置的知识，将使航天器的姿态得以确定。在开发仪器软件时，创新伙伴将使用以前用于跟踪显微镜图像中的生物细胞的图像处理技术。项目完成后，计划通过苏塞克斯大学的一家衍生公司将MicroADS商业化。

In order to operate correctly, spacecraft need to be able to determine their orientation ("attitude") relative to some other object or objects. A radically new attitude determination system (called MicroADS) has been invented at University of Sussex. It works on a different optical principle to existing instruments, and benefits from wider fields-of-view and better accuracies than comparable systems. To date, most work on the instrument has been hardware development. This new Innovation Fellowship project will develop the computer software (image processing techniques) required to turn the output from the hardware into a direction vector indicating the direction towards the light source being used for attitude determination. This direction vector, together with knowledge of the geometry of the instrument and knowledge of the location of the instrument on the spacecraft, will enable the spacecraft's attitude to be determined. In developing the instrument software, the Innovation Fellow will use image processing techniques previously used for tracking biological cells in microscope images.Post project, it is planned that MicroADS will be commercialised via a spinout company from University of Sussex.