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Multi-Aperture CMOS Sun Sensor for Microsatellite Attitude Determination

This paper describes the high precision digital sun sensor under development at the University of Naples. The sensor determines the sun line orientation in the sensor frame from the measurement of the sun position on the focal plane. It exploits CMOS technology and an original optical head design wi...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Rufino, Giancarlo, Grassi, Michele
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Molecular Diversity Preservation International (MDPI) 2009
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3291923/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22408538
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s90604503
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author Rufino, Giancarlo
Grassi, Michele
author_facet Rufino, Giancarlo
Grassi, Michele
author_sort Rufino, Giancarlo
collection PubMed
description This paper describes the high precision digital sun sensor under development at the University of Naples. The sensor determines the sun line orientation in the sensor frame from the measurement of the sun position on the focal plane. It exploits CMOS technology and an original optical head design with multiple apertures. This allows simultaneous multiple acquisitions of the sun as spots on the focal plane. The sensor can be operated either with a fixed or a variable number of sun spots, depending on the required field of view and sun-line measurement precision. Multiple acquisitions are averaged by using techniques which minimize the computational load to extract the sun line orientation with high precision. Accuracy and computational efficiency are also improved thanks to an original design of the calibration function relying on neural networks. Extensive test campaigns are carried out using a laboratory test facility reproducing sun spectrum, apparent size and distance, and variable illumination directions. Test results validate the sensor concept, confirming the precision improvement achievable with multiple apertures, and sensor operation with a variable number of sun spots. Specifically, the sensor provides accuracy and precision in the order of 1 arcmin and 1 arcsec, respectively.
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spelling pubmed-32919232012-03-09 Multi-Aperture CMOS Sun Sensor for Microsatellite Attitude Determination Rufino, Giancarlo Grassi, Michele Sensors (Basel) Article This paper describes the high precision digital sun sensor under development at the University of Naples. The sensor determines the sun line orientation in the sensor frame from the measurement of the sun position on the focal plane. It exploits CMOS technology and an original optical head design with multiple apertures. This allows simultaneous multiple acquisitions of the sun as spots on the focal plane. The sensor can be operated either with a fixed or a variable number of sun spots, depending on the required field of view and sun-line measurement precision. Multiple acquisitions are averaged by using techniques which minimize the computational load to extract the sun line orientation with high precision. Accuracy and computational efficiency are also improved thanks to an original design of the calibration function relying on neural networks. Extensive test campaigns are carried out using a laboratory test facility reproducing sun spectrum, apparent size and distance, and variable illumination directions. Test results validate the sensor concept, confirming the precision improvement achievable with multiple apertures, and sensor operation with a variable number of sun spots. Specifically, the sensor provides accuracy and precision in the order of 1 arcmin and 1 arcsec, respectively. Molecular Diversity Preservation International (MDPI) 2009-06-09 /pmc/articles/PMC3291923/ /pubmed/22408538 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s90604503 Text en © 2009 by the authors; licensee Molecular Diversity Preservation International, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Rufino, Giancarlo
Grassi, Michele
Multi-Aperture CMOS Sun Sensor for Microsatellite Attitude Determination
title Multi-Aperture CMOS Sun Sensor for Microsatellite Attitude Determination
title_full Multi-Aperture CMOS Sun Sensor for Microsatellite Attitude Determination
title_fullStr Multi-Aperture CMOS Sun Sensor for Microsatellite Attitude Determination
title_full_unstemmed Multi-Aperture CMOS Sun Sensor for Microsatellite Attitude Determination
title_short Multi-Aperture CMOS Sun Sensor for Microsatellite Attitude Determination
title_sort multi-aperture cmos sun sensor for microsatellite attitude determination
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3291923/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22408538
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s90604503
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