Recursive mode star identification algorithms
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Star identification can be accomplished by several different available algorithms that identify the stars observed by a star tracker. However, efficiency and reliability remain key issues and the availability of new active pixel cameras requires new approaches. In this paper, two novel algorithms for recursive mode star identification are presented. The first approach is derived by the Spherical Polygon Search algorithm, here used to access all the cataloged stars observed by the sensor field of view and recursively add/remove candidate cataloged stars according to the predicted image motion induced by camera attitude dynamics. Star identification is then accomplished by a star pattern matching technique which identify the observed stars in the reference catalog. The second method uses star neighborhood information and a cataloged neighborhood pointer matrix to access the star catalog. In the recursive star identification process, and under the assumption of a "slow" attitude dynamics, only the stars in the neighborhood of previously identified stars are considered for star identification in the succeeding frames. Numerical tests are performed to validate the absolute and relative efficiency of the proposed methods.
