MicroADS Spacecraft Attitude Determination System Instrument Software

为了正确运行，航天器需要能够确定其相对于其他一个或多个物体的方向（“姿态”）。苏塞克斯大学发明了一种全新的姿态确定系统（称为MicroADS）。它采用与现有仪器不同的光学原理，并受益于比同类系统更宽的视场和更高的精度。迄今为止，仪器的大部分工作都是硬件开发。这一新的创新研究金项目将开发所需的计算机软件（图像处理技术），以便将硬件的输出转化为方向矢量，表明朝向用于姿态确定的光源的方向。这一方向矢量加上关于仪器几何形状的知识和关于仪器在航天器上的位置的知识，将能够确定航天器的姿态。在开发仪器软件时，创新研究员将使用以前用于跟踪显微镜图像中生物细胞的图像处理技术。项目结束后，计划通过苏塞克斯大学的一家分拆公司将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.