A novel approach for video-based absolute navigation in space exploration missions

In the last years, Video-based Navigation is becoming an hot topic since camera sensors will be more and more included in future space exploration missions, to allow a visual comprehension of the surrounding unknown environment. This paper proposes a novel approach for Video-based Absolute Navigation focusing on the Entry, Descent and Landing phase of spacecrafts on planets. Moreover the paper shows how a Video-based Absolute Navigation processing chain can exploit Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) devices to achieve high throughput, in terms of frames-per-seconds. Experimental results highlight the robustness and limited memory requirements of the proposed approach.