Thermal imager-based computer vision for autonomous rendezvous and docking

空间自主交会对接（AR&D）被广泛认为是实现各种任务的重要技术能力。然而，大多数以前的AR&D任务涉及合作航天器，即配备已知视觉标记的航天器。这极大地促进了实时运动估计过程; AR&D的关键使能技术之一，实时计算追逐者和目标航天器之间的相对运动。然而，即将到来的空间AR&D任务将涉及非合作目标，即，没有视觉标记的航天器，这些视觉标记可以被计算机视觉系统检测到以确定相对运动。

Autonomous rendezvous and docking (AR&D) in space is widely recognized as an important technological capability that enables various missions. However, the most previous AR&D missions dealt with cooperative spacecraft, i.e. spacecraft equipped with known visual markers. This greatly facilitated real-time motion estimation process; one of the key enabling-technologies for AR&D that calculates, in real-time, the relative motion between the chaser and the target spacecraft. However, upcoming AR&D missions in space will involve noncooperative targets, i.e., spacecraft with no visual markers that can be detected by the computer vision system to determine the relative motion.