Conceptual Design on the Field of View of Celestial Navigation Systems for Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships

• Main Authors: Wakita, Kouki, Hane, Fuyuki, Sekiguchi, Takeshi, Shimizu, Shigehito, Mitani, Shinji, Akimoto, Youhei, Maki, Atsuo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 28-08-2024
• Subjects: Computer Science - Robotics
• DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2408.15765

In order to understand the appropriate field of view (FOV) size of celestial
automatic navigation systems for surface ships, we investigate the variations
of measurement accuracy of star position and probability of successful star
identification with respect to FOV, focusing on the decreasing number of
observable star magnitudes and the presence of physically covered stars in
marine environments. The results revealed that, although a larger FOV reduces
the measurement accuracy of star positions, it increases the number of
observable objects and thus improves the probability of star identification
using subgraph isomorphism-based methods. It was also found that, although at
least four objects need to be observed for accurate identification, four
objects may not be sufficient for wider FOVs. On the other hand, from the point
of view of celestial navigation systems, a decrease in the measurement accuracy
leads to a decrease in positioning accuracy. Therefore, it was found that
maximizing the FOV is required for celestial automatic navigation systems as
long as the desired positioning accuracy can be ensured. Furthermore, it was
found that algorithms incorporating more than four observed celestial objects
are required to achieve highly accurate star identification over a wider FOV.