Gespeichert in:
Bibliographische Detailangaben
Hauptverfasser: Melamed, Dennis, Hashemi, Connor, McCloskey, Scott
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
Schlagworte:
Online-Zugang:https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.08794
Tags: Tag hinzufügen
Keine Tags, Fügen Sie den ersten Tag hinzu!
_version_ 1866912580685004800
author Melamed, Dennis
Hashemi, Connor
McCloskey, Scott
author_facet Melamed, Dennis
Hashemi, Connor
McCloskey, Scott
contents Event-based cameras (EBCs) are a promising new technology for star tracking-based attitude determination, but prior studies have struggled to determine accurate ground truth for real data. We analyze the accuracy of an EBC star tracking system utilizing the Earth's motion as the ground truth for comparison. The Earth rotates in a regular way with very small irregularities which are measured to the level of milli-arcseconds. By keeping an event camera static and pointing it through a ground-based telescope at the night sky, we create a system where the only camera motion in the celestial reference frame is that induced by the Earth's rotation. The resulting event stream is processed to generate estimates of orientation which we compare to the International Earth Rotation and Reference System (IERS) measured orientation of the Earth. The event camera system is able to achieve a root mean squared across error of 18.47 arcseconds and an about error of 78.84 arcseconds. Combined with the other benefits of event cameras over framing sensors (reduced computation due to sparser data streams, higher dynamic range, lower energy consumption, faster update rates), this level of accuracy suggests the utility of event cameras for low-cost and low-latency star tracking. We provide all code and data used to generate our results: https://gitlab.kitware.com/nest-public/telescope_accuracy_quantification.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2509_08794
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Quantifying Accuracy of an Event-Based Star Tracker via Earth's Rotation
Melamed, Dennis
Hashemi, Connor
McCloskey, Scott
Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
Event-based cameras (EBCs) are a promising new technology for star tracking-based attitude determination, but prior studies have struggled to determine accurate ground truth for real data. We analyze the accuracy of an EBC star tracking system utilizing the Earth's motion as the ground truth for comparison. The Earth rotates in a regular way with very small irregularities which are measured to the level of milli-arcseconds. By keeping an event camera static and pointing it through a ground-based telescope at the night sky, we create a system where the only camera motion in the celestial reference frame is that induced by the Earth's rotation. The resulting event stream is processed to generate estimates of orientation which we compare to the International Earth Rotation and Reference System (IERS) measured orientation of the Earth. The event camera system is able to achieve a root mean squared across error of 18.47 arcseconds and an about error of 78.84 arcseconds. Combined with the other benefits of event cameras over framing sensors (reduced computation due to sparser data streams, higher dynamic range, lower energy consumption, faster update rates), this level of accuracy suggests the utility of event cameras for low-cost and low-latency star tracking. We provide all code and data used to generate our results: https://gitlab.kitware.com/nest-public/telescope_accuracy_quantification.
title Quantifying Accuracy of an Event-Based Star Tracker via Earth's Rotation
topic Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.08794