Real-Time HALCON-Based Pose Measurement System for an Astronaut Assistant Robot

The manned space program in China has entered the space station stage. Space astronauts normally have very limited time for certain tasks, so in order to free space astronauts from some repetitive routine tasks, various robots in space appear. Free-flying robots in space can also provide conditions for various scientific experiments with their unique microgravity advantages. The measurement of their positions and attitudes is the premise of their autonomous flight and remote operations. So, the pose measurements system of the Astronaut Assistant Robot is designed in this paper. With the camera calibrated, the image is acquired and processed in real time, and the robot is tracked in real time. In the end poses are estimated by virtue of PnP algorithm. The pose measurements system is modeled and simulated, with an automatic global threshold method to improve the reliability of the system. In addition, a series of measures are adopted to improve its efficiency with a satisfactory accuracy. The experimental results show that the measurement system meets the requirements of both effectiveness and efficiency