{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,5]],"date-time":"2026-03-05T16:00:17Z","timestamp":1772726417680,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":40,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2018,1,10]],"date-time":"2018-01-10T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1515542400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Robotics"],"abstract":"<jats:p>This paper presents a pose estimation routine for tracking attitude and position of an uncooperative tumbling spacecraft during close range rendezvous. The key innovation is the usage of a Photonic Mixer Device (PMD) sensor for the first time during space proximity for tracking the pose of the uncooperative target. This sensor requires lower power consumption and higher resolution if compared with existing flash Light Identification Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) sensors. In addition, the PMD sensor provides two different measurements at the same time: depth information (point cloud) and amplitude of the reflected signal, which generates a grayscale image. In this paper, a hybrid model-based navigation technique that employs both measurements is proposed. The principal pose estimation technique is the iterative closed point algorithm with reverse calibration, which relies on the depth image. The second technique is an image processing pipeline that generates a set of 2D-to-3D feature correspondences between amplitude image and spacecraft model followed by the Efficient Perspective-n-Points (EPnP) algorithm for pose estimation. In this way, we gain a redundant estimation of the target\u2019s current state in real-time without hardware redundancy. The proposed navigation methodology is tested in the German Aerospace Center (DLR)\u2019s European Proximity Operations Simulator. The hybrid navigation technique shows the capability to ensure robust pose estimation of an uncooperative tumbling target under severe illumination conditions. In fact, the EPnP-based technique allows to overcome the limitations of the primary technique when harsh illumination conditions arise.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/robotics7010005","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2018,1,10]],"date-time":"2018-01-10T12:41:10Z","timestamp":1515588070000},"page":"5","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":9,"title":["Close Range Tracking of an Uncooperative Target in a Sequence of Photonic Mixer Device (PMD) Images"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"7","author":[{"given":"Ksenia","family":"Klionovska","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"German Space Operations Center, German Aerospace Center, Muenchener Str. 20, 82234 Wessling, Germany"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Jacopo","family":"Ventura","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"German Space Operations Center, German Aerospace Center, Muenchener Str. 20, 82234 Wessling, Germany"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Heike","family":"Benninghoff","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"German Space Operations Center, German Aerospace Center, Muenchener Str. 20, 82234 Wessling, Germany"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Felix","family":"Huber","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"German Space Operations Center, German Aerospace Center, Muenchener Str. 20, 82234 Wessling, Germany"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2018,1,10]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Fehse, W. 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