Fast loop image processing for line-of-sight accurate pointing

•Design, model and breadboard a Line of sight stabilization system for high accuracy pointing missions (GEO-HR, LEO, ARIEL)

•On-board disturbance sources such as solar array drive mechanism, stepper motors or low frequency micro-vibrations sources, degrade the line of sight pointing performances and image quality. Mitigation solutions require embarking expensive equipment such as very high performance gyroscopes and star trackers. The system developed in the frame of this activity aims at improving pointing performances while reducing cost by allowing using low cost gyroscopes and star trackers for high accuracy pointing missions in LEO and in GEO.  •Design and development of real-time image processing algorithms to reconstruct the line of sight rotation angles directly and exclusively from image  •Simulations for GEO-HR, LEO and ARIEL application cases•Design, development and manufacturing of a bread-board including a GEO-HR images engraved in a substrate, lenses, fast camera, FPGA•Hardware tests performed show excellent performances with a residual error below 2% pixel for a rotation up to +/- 1 pixel•Capacity to acquire image with rotations larger than 1 pixel•Identification of hardware to be further developed and associated companies