Fast tracking mode predictive centroiding scheme

The autonomous star trackers, using charge couple device CCD camera, or active pixel sensor APS, as natural sensors for optical input, has assumed a permanent position. This is due to their highly accurate attitude determination, small size, light weight and simple functionality, making them devices of choice in nearly all modern space vehicles especially for Nano-satellites. In all star trackers, star centroiding is a fundamental process necessary for pattern recognition. In this paper, a new method is presented, which predicts centers of regions of star locations, in successive image frames, from the current knowledge of boresight direction, which is updated successively. This method is very attractive for hardware implementation using APS imagers known for their random accessibility feature lacked in CCD's. The big advantage of this method is that it does not need pattern recognition, thus making it fast. This reduction of computational budget, power consumption and time, added to the capability of incorporating them in APS imagers, is appealing to Nano-satellites navigational instrumentation.