{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,19]],"date-time":"2025-12-19T09:53:32Z","timestamp":1766138012133,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":42,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"12","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,6,15]],"date-time":"2022-06-15T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1655251200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001809","name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["61705220"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["61705220"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001809","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Remote Sensing"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Aiming at the application of close-up space measurement based on time-of-flight (TOF) cameras, according to the analysis of the characteristics of the space background environment and the imaging characteristics of the TOF camera, a physics-based amplitude modulated continuous wave (AMCW) TOF camera imaging simulation method for space targets based on the improved path tracing is proposed. Firstly, the microfacet bidirectional reflection distribution function (BRDF) model of several typical space target surface materials is fitted according to the measured BRDF data in the TOF camera response band to make it physics-based. Secondly, an improved path tracing algorithm is developed to adapt to the TOF camera by introducing a cosine component to characterize the modulated light in the TOF camera. Then, the imaging link simulation model considering the coupling effects of the BRDF of materials, the suppression of background illumination (SBI), optical system, detector, electronic equipment, platform vibration, and noise is established, and the simulation images of the TOF camera are obtained. Finally, ground tests are carried out, and the test shows that the relative error of the grey mean, grey variance, depth mean, and depth variance is 2.59%, 3.80%, 18.29%, and 14.58%, respectively; the MSE, SSIM, and PSNR results of our method are also better than those of the reference method. The ground test results verify the correctness of the proposed simulation model, which can provide image data support for the ground test of TOF camera algorithms for space targets.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/rs14122868","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,6,16]],"date-time":"2022-06-16T03:01:22Z","timestamp":1655348482000},"page":"2868","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":4,"title":["Physics-Based TOF Imaging Simulation for Space Targets Based on Improved Path Tracing"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"14","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1507-3539","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Zhiqiang","family":"Yan","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Space Optical Engineering Research Center, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China"}]},{"given":"Hongyuan","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Space Optical Engineering Research Center, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China"}]},{"given":"Xiang","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Space Optical Engineering Research Center, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9907-148X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Qianhao","family":"Ning","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Space Optical Engineering Research Center, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China"}]},{"given":"Yinxi","family":"Lu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Space Optical Engineering Research Center, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,6,15]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"53","DOI":"10.1016\/j.paerosci.2017.07.001","article-title":"A review of cooperative and uncooperative spacecraft pose determination techniques for close-proximity operations","volume":"93","author":"Opromolla","year":"2017","journal-title":"Prog. Aerosp. Sci."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Klionovska, K., and Burri, M. (2021). Hardware-in-the-Loop Simulations with Umbra Conditions for Spacecraft Rendezvous with PMD Visual Sensors. Sensors, 21.","DOI":"10.3390\/s21041455"},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"149","DOI":"10.3182\/20130902-5-DE-2040.00068","article-title":"Evaluation and Performance Optimization of PMD Camera for RvD Application","volume":"46","author":"Ravandoor","year":"2013","journal-title":"IFAC Proc. Vol."},{"key":"ref_4","first-page":"774","article-title":"Time-of-Flight Monitoring Camera System of the De-orbiting Drag Sail for Microsatellite ALE-1","volume":"19","author":"Potier","year":"2021","journal-title":"Trans. Jpn. Soc. Aeronaut. Space Sci. Aerosp. Technol. Jpn."},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"165","DOI":"10.1016\/j.actaastro.2017.07.002","article-title":"Pose estimation and tracking of non-cooperative rocket bodies using Time-of-Flight cameras","volume":"139","author":"Giorgi","year":"2017","journal-title":"Acta Astronaut."},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Ruel, S., English, C., Anctil, M., Daly, J., Smith, C., and Zhu, S. (2006). Real-time 3D vision solution for on-orbit autonomous rendezvous and docking. Spaceborne Sensors III, SPIE.","DOI":"10.1117\/12.665354"},{"key":"ref_7","unstructured":"Lebreton, J., Brochard, R., Baudry, M., Jonniaux, G., Salah, A.H., Kanani, K., Goff, M.L., Masson, A., Ollagnier, N., and Panicucci, P. (2021). Image simulation for space applications with the SurRender software. arXiv."},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1474","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ijleo.2015.04.034","article-title":"Modeling the space-based optical imaging of complex space target based on the pixel method","volume":"126","author":"Han","year":"2015","journal-title":"Optik"},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Zhang, Y., Lv, L., Yang, C., and Gu, Y. (2021, January 1\u20134). Research on Digital Imaging Simulation Method of Space Target Navigation Camera. Proceedings of the 2021 IEEE 16th Conference on Industrial Electronics and Applications (ICIEA), Chengdu, China.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICIEA51954.2021.9516301"},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Li, W., Cao, Y., Meng, D., and Wu, Z. (2018, January 3\u20136). Space target scattering characteristic imaging in the visible range based on ray tracing algorithm. Proceedings of the 12th International Symposium on Antennas, Propagation and EM Theory (ISAPE), Hangzhou, China.","DOI":"10.1109\/ISAPE.2018.8634052"},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Xu, C., Shi, H., Gao, Y., Zhou, L., Shi, Q., and Li, J. (2019, January 7\u20139). Space-Based optical imaging dynamic simulation for spatial target. Proceedings of the AOPC 2019: Optical Sensing and Imaging Technology, Beijing, China.","DOI":"10.1117\/12.2543175"},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"547","DOI":"10.1080\/09500340.2011.640951","article-title":"Visible imaging characteristics of the space target based on bidirectional reflection distribution function","volume":"59","author":"Wang","year":"2012","journal-title":"J. Mod. Opt."},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"368","DOI":"10.1016\/j.infrared.2012.02.003","article-title":"Infrared imaging characteristics of space-based targets based on bidirectional reflection distribution function","volume":"55","author":"Wang","year":"2012","journal-title":"Infrared Phys. Technol."},{"key":"ref_14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"93","DOI":"10.1016\/j.infrared.2018.12.002","article-title":"Infrared characteristics of satellite based on bidirectional reflection distribution function","volume":"97","author":"Ding","year":"2019","journal-title":"Infrared Phys. Technol."},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"0504002","DOI":"10.3788\/irla201645.0504002","article-title":"Modeling and simulation of infrared dynamic characteristics of space-based space targets","volume":"45","author":"Wang","year":"2016","journal-title":"Infrared Laser Eng."},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3432","DOI":"10.1109\/TGRS.2014.2376940","article-title":"Simulation of ISAR Imaging for a Space Target and Reconstruction under Sparse Sampling via Compressed Sensing","volume":"53","author":"Wang","year":"2015","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_17","unstructured":"Schlutz, M. (2009). Synthetic Aperture Radar Imaging Simulated in MATLAB. [Master\u2019s Thesis, California Polytechnic State University]."},{"key":"ref_18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"967","DOI":"10.1016\/j.simpat.2009.03.004","article-title":"Real-time simulation of time-of-flight sensors","volume":"17","author":"Keller","year":"2009","journal-title":"Simul. Model. Pract. Theory"},{"key":"ref_19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Keller, M., Orthmann, J., Kolb, A., and Peters, V. (2007, January 13\u201314). A simulation framework for time-of-flight sensors. Proceedings of the 2007 International Symposium on Signals, Circuits and Systems, Iasi, Romania.","DOI":"10.1109\/ISSCS.2007.4292667"},{"key":"ref_20","unstructured":"Meister, S., Nair, R., and Kondermann, D. (2013, January 11\u201313). Simulation of Time-of-Flight Sensors using Global Illumination. Proceedings of the VMV, Lugano, Switzerland."},{"key":"ref_21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"4019","DOI":"10.1109\/JSEN.2015.2409816","article-title":"Simulation of Time-of-Flight Sensors for Evaluation of Chip Layout Variants","volume":"15","author":"Lambers","year":"2015","journal-title":"IEEE Sens. J."},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Bulczak, D., Lambers, M., and Kolb, A. (2018). Quantified, Interactive Simulation of AMCW ToF Camera Including Multipath Effects. Sensors, 18.","DOI":"10.3390\/s18010013"},{"key":"ref_23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Thoman, P., Wippler, M., Hranitzky, R., and Fahringer, T. (2020, January 27\u201329). RTX-RSim: Accelerated Vulkan room response simulation for time-of-flight imaging. Proceedings of the International Workshop on OpenCL, Munich, Germany.","DOI":"10.1145\/3388333.3388662"},{"key":"ref_24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2319","DOI":"10.1109\/JSSC.2014.2340377","article-title":"A 3-D Camera With Adaptable Background Light Suppression Using Pixel-Binning and Super-Resolution","volume":"49","author":"Cho","year":"2014","journal-title":"IEEE J. Solid-State Circuits"},{"key":"ref_25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Shin, J., Kang, B., Lee, K., and Kim, J.D.K. (2013, January 3\u20137). A 3D image sensor with adaptable charge subtraction scheme for background light suppression. Proceedings of the Sensors, Cameras, and Systems for Industrial and Scientific Applications XIV, Burlingame, CA, USA.","DOI":"10.1117\/12.2005761"},{"key":"ref_26","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Davidovic, M., Seiter, J., Hofbauer, M., Gaberl, W., and Zimmermann, H. (2013, January 13\u201316). A background light resistant TOF range finder with integrated PIN photodiode in 0.35 \u03bcm CMOS. Proceedings of the Videometrics, Range Imaging, and Applications XII; and Automated Visual Inspection, Munich, Germany.","DOI":"10.1117\/12.2021021"},{"key":"ref_27","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Davidovic, M., Hofbauer, M., Schneider-Hornstein, K., and Zimmermann, H. (2011, January 28\u201331). High dynamic range background light suppression for a TOF distance measurement sensor in 180nm CMOS. Proceedings of the SENSORS, Limerick, Ireland.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICSENS.2011.6127060"},{"key":"ref_28","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Davidovic, M., Zach, G., Schneider-Hornstein, K., and Zimmermann, H. (2010, January 1\u20134). TOF range finding sensor in 90nm CMOS capable of suppressing 180 klx ambient light. Proceedings of the SENSORS, Waikoloa, HI, USA.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICSENS.2010.5690996"},{"key":"ref_29","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Schmidt, M., and J\u00e4hne, B. (2009). A Physical Model of Time-of-Flight 3D Imaging Systems, Including Suppression of Ambient Light. Workshop on Dynamic 3D Imaging, Springer.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-642-03778-8_1"},{"key":"ref_30","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1105","DOI":"10.1364\/JOSA.57.001105","article-title":"Theory for Off-Specular Reflection from Roughened Surfaces","volume":"57","author":"Torrance","year":"1967","journal-title":"J. Opt. Soc. Am."},{"key":"ref_31","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Hou, Q., Zhi, X., Zhang, H., and Zhang, W. (2014). Modeling and validation of spectral BRDF on material surface of space target. International Symposium on Optoelectronic Technology and Application 2014: Optical Remote Sensing Technology and Applications, International Society for Optics and Photonics.","DOI":"10.1117\/12.2073058"},{"key":"ref_32","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Sun, C., Yuan, Y., Zhang, X., Wang, Q., and Zhou, Z. (2010, January 25\u201327). Research on the model of spectral BRDF for space target surface material. Proceedings of the 2010 International Symposium on Optomechatronic Technologies, Toronto, ON, Canada.","DOI":"10.1109\/ISOT.2010.5687369"},{"key":"ref_33","unstructured":"Peng, L.I., Zhi, L.I., and Can, X.U. (2016, January 27\u201328). Measuring and Modeling the Bidirectional Reflection Distribution Function of Space Object\u2019s Surface Material. Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Materials Engineering, Manufacturing Technology and Control (ICMEMTC 2016), Taiyuan, China."},{"key":"ref_34","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Schwarte, R., Xu, Z., Heinol, H.-G., Olk, J., Klein, R., Buxbaum, B., Fischer, H., and Schulte, J. (1997, January 16\u201317). New electro-optical mixing and correlating sensor: Facilities and applications of the photonic mixer device (PMD). Proceedings of the Sensors, Sensor Systems, and Sensor Data Processing, Munich, Germany.","DOI":"10.1117\/12.287751"},{"key":"ref_35","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"135","DOI":"10.5194\/ars-5-135-2007","article-title":"Multidimensional measurement by using 3-D PMD sensors","volume":"5","author":"Ringbeck","year":"2007","journal-title":"Adv. Radio Sci."},{"key":"ref_36","unstructured":"Conde, M.H. (2017). Compressive Sensing for the Photonic Mixer Device, Springer."},{"key":"ref_37","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Kajiya, J.T. (1986, January 18\u201322). The rendering equation. Proceedings of the 13th Annual Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques, Dallas, TX, USA.","DOI":"10.1145\/15922.15902"},{"key":"ref_38","unstructured":"Pharr, M., Jakob, W., and Humphreys, G. (2016). Physically Based Rendering: From Theory to Implementation, Morgan Kaufmann."},{"key":"ref_39","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"17134","DOI":"10.1364\/OE.25.017134","article-title":"Image quality enhancement method for on-orbit remote sensing cameras using invariable modulation transfer function","volume":"25","author":"Li","year":"2017","journal-title":"Opt. Express"},{"key":"ref_40","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Sukumar, V., Hess, H.L., Noren, K.V., Donohoe, G., and Ay, S. (2008, January 10\u201313). Imaging system MTF-modeling with modulation functions. Proceedings of the 2008 34th Annual Conference of IEEE Industrial Electronics, Orlando, FL, USA.","DOI":"10.1109\/IECON.2008.4758218"},{"key":"ref_41","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1090","DOI":"10.1016\/j.compind.2013.06.006","article-title":"Increasing the accuracy of Time-of-Flight cameras for machine vision applications","volume":"64","author":"Langmann","year":"2013","journal-title":"Comput. Ind."},{"key":"ref_42","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Langmann, B. (2014). Wide Area 2D\/3D Imaging: Development, Analysis and Applications, Springer.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-658-06457-0"}],"container-title":["Remote Sensing"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2072-4292\/14\/12\/2868\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,10]],"date-time":"2025-10-10T23:32:12Z","timestamp":1760139132000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2072-4292\/14\/12\/2868"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2022,6,15]]},"references-count":42,"journal-issue":{"issue":"12","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,6]]}},"alternative-id":["rs14122868"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/rs14122868","relation":{},"ISSN":["2072-4292"],"issn-type":[{"type":"electronic","value":"2072-4292"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2022,6,15]]}}}