A compressive sensing algorithm for attitude determination

We propose a framework for compressive sensing of images with local distinguishable objects, such as stars, and apply it to solve a problem in celestial navigation. Specifically, let x [epsilon] RN be an N-pixel image, consisting of a small number of local distinguishable objects plus noise. Our goal is to design an m x N measurement matrix A with m << N, such that we can recover an approximation to x from the measurements Ax. We construct a matrix A and recovery algorithm with the following properties: (i) if there are k objects, the number of measurements m is O((klog N)/(log k)), undercutting the best known bound of O(klog(N/k)) (ii) the matrix A is ultra-sparse, which is important when the signal is weak relative to the noise, and (iii) the recovery algorithm is empirically fast and runs in time sub-linear in N. We also present a comprehensive study of the application of our algorithm to attitude determination, or finding one's orientation in space. Spacecraft typically use cameras to acquire an image of the sky, and then identify stars in the image to compute their orientation. Taking pictures is very expensive for small spacecraft, since camera sensors use a lot of power. Our algorithm optically compresses the image before it reaches the camera's array of pixels, reducing the number of sensors that are required.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2011

Author dc:creator

• Gupta, Rishi Vijay

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Piotr Indyk and Yaron Rachlin.

• Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/66422

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/66422