Dynamic surface imaging for the space shuttle experiments

In this article we discuss various techniques developed to estimate the position and velocity vector of the surface of an object subjected to various forces, both translational and rotational, during an analysis experiment to be performed on the U.S. Space Shuttle. This dynamical information will be used to understand the underlying dynamics of the overall system under investigation and develop an improved design. Here the emphasis is on the measurement sensor and the basic image processing required to achieve the goal of making this measurement. The scheme will be to provide a small cylindrical hole(s) in the mechanism under investigation, illuminate the surface through this “porthole,” and obtain a real-time image of the surface on a charged-coupled device (CCD) sensor array. The CCD array data will be compressed and transmitted to the ground tracking station as well as archived for future processing. Also, the design of an optimal tracker capable of providing both two-dimensional position and velocity estimates in real time is discussed. In this case, data synthesized from a dynamic simulation are processed demonstrating its capability and predicted performance. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Int J Imaging Syst Technol 9: 463–474, 1998