VIS-TIR Cameras Data Fusion to Enhance Relative Navigation During in Orbit Servicing Operations

The paper proposes an effective and robust approach to cope with operating in proximity of non-cooperative orbiting objects for In Orbit Servicing. To improve vision-based relative navigation systems, the proposed approach exploits an image processing chain on visible (VIS) and thermal infrared (TIR) images, by firstly aligning the two source images and then fusing the data with pixel-wise image fusion methods to obtain complementary and more informative results. For each step of the image processing chain, multiple methods were investigated and evaluated both qualitatively and quantitatively. The lack of datasets for VIS and TIR images acquired on orbit under proximity manoeuvring scenarios, drove towards an in-house developed simulator, using VEga Secondary Payload Adapter (VESPA) as the target case study.