Correcting image blurring induced by the ADCS jitter in cubesats

Abstract

Attitude determination and control systems (ADCS) are critical in many satellite missions, especially when high pointing accuracy is needed, such as in optical imagers. Current actuators used to control the platform's attitude, such as reaction wheels or magnetorquers, have some limitations, inducing some jitter, which is crucial in small satellites. This jitter induces the image blurring. This work analyzes the impact of actuator's jitter, and then a deblurring technique to minimize and correct the distortion produced is studied. Two points are addressed to restore the blurred images. First, the data coming from the inertial sensors embarked on the satellite to infer the movement of the camera is used. Secondly, a deblurring technique for non-constant blurring over an image is applied.

This project has been sponsored by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, "Sensing with Pioneering Opportunistic Techniques", grant RTI2018- 099008-B-C21 and by “CommSensLab” Excellence Research Unit Maria de Maeztu (MINECO grant MDM2016-0600), and by ICREA Academia award from the Generalitat de Catalunya, and by “Programa de Formación de Profesorado Universitario” FPU18/06107.

Peer Reviewed

Postprint (published version)