Razaman, Anis Hannani and Ahmad, Yasser Asrul and Gunawan, Teddy Surya and Khalifa, Othman Omran and Popović, Mila (2026) A robust low-complexity star centroiding algorithm for autonomous navigation under lunar noise conditions. IIUM Engineering Journal, 27 (2). pp. 257-277. ISSN 1511-788X E-ISSN 2289-7860
|
PDF
- Published Version
Download (2MB) | Preview |
|
|
PDF
- Supplemental Material
Download (144kB) | Preview |
Abstract
Star-based navigation on the lunar surface is severely degraded by strong regolith reflections, abrupt illumination transitions, and sensor-induced noise, all of which lower the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and impair centroiding accuracy. Existing methods address this trade-off poorly: classical center-of-mass (COM) and Gaussian fitting are computationally light but noise-sensitive, whereas iterative weighting and learning-based approaches improve accuracy at the cost of high computational load and large training data. This study addresses this gap by proposing a low-complexity yet robust star centroiding algorithm tailored for lunar-surface imagery. The pipeline integrates median filtering for impulse-noise suppression, an adaptive global threshold (set at 30% of peak intensity) for star-region segmentation, and an intensity-weighted COM estimator for sub-pixel localization. The method was implemented in MATLAB R2023b and evaluated on 30 Stellarium-derived star fields, each corrupted by Gaussian, Poisson, salt-and-pepper, speckle, and solar-glare noise spanning SNRs from ?4.71 dB to 0.72 dB. Benchmarked against standard COM, Gaussian fitting, and the Sieve Search Algorithm (SSA), the proposed method achieves the lowest average root-mean-square error (RMSE = 1.218 pixels), the lowest Euclidean distance error (1.143 pixels), and the lowest false detection rate (FDR = 6.716%), corresponding to relative reductions of 21.5%, 16.7%, and 32.7% over the best baseline, respectively. The algorithm’s favorable accuracy–complexity trade-off makes it well-suited for resource-constrained onboard processors in future lunar exploration and autonomous spacecraft navigation missions.
| Item Type: | Article (Journal) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | star centroiding, lunar navigation, harsh lunar environment, image processing, autonomous navigation |
| Subjects: | T Technology > TK Electrical engineering. Electronics Nuclear engineering > TK7800 Electronics. Computer engineering. Computer hardware. Photoelectronic devices > TK7885 Computer engineering |
| Kulliyyahs/Centres/Divisions/Institutes (Can select more than one option. Press CONTROL button): | Kulliyyah of Engineering Kulliyyah of Engineering > Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering |
| Depositing User: | Prof. Dr. Teddy Surya Gunawan |
| Date Deposited: | 20 May 2026 09:24 |
| Last Modified: | 20 May 2026 09:24 |
| Queue Number: | 2026-05-Q3461 |
| URI: | http://irep.iium.edu.my/id/eprint/129070 |
Actions (login required)
 |
View Item |