Journal of Systems Engineering and Electronics ›› 2022, Vol. 33 ›› Issue (5): 1095-1107.doi: 10.23919/JSEE.2022.000107

• DEFENCE ELECTRONICS TECHNOLOGY • Previous Articles     Next Articles

A parallel pipeline connected-component labeling method for on-orbit space target monitoring

Zongling LI1,2(), Qingjun ZHANG3(), Teng LONG1(), Baojun ZHAO1,*()   

  1. 1 School of Information and Electronics, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China
    2 Institute of Spacecraft System Engineering, China Academy of Space Technology, Beijing 100094, China
    3 Institute of Remote Sensing Satellite, China Academy of Space Technology, Beijing 100094, China
  • Received:2022-03-03 Accepted:2022-08-09 Online:2022-10-27 Published:2022-10-27
  • Contact: Baojun ZHAO E-mail:leezl0519@163.com;ztzhangqj@163.com;longteng@bit.edu.cn;zbj@bit.edu.cn
  • About author:|LI Zonglingwas born in 1985. He is currently pursuing his Ph.D. degree in the School of Information and Electronics, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China. He is currently a senior engineer with the Institute of Spacecraft System Engineering. His research interests include satellite system design, space-borne computer design, and high-speed radar signal processing. E-mail: leezl0519@163.com||ZHANG Qingjun was born in 1969. He received his Ph.D. degree from Huazhong University of Science and Technology from 1993 to 2005, he designed spacecraft surveying and control subsystem and designed spacecrafts ’ rendezvous and docking scheme as a chief designer with China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation. Since 2012, he has been a chief designer with the Beijing Institute of Spacecraft System Engineering, for Landsat Series Satellites and Gaofen-3. His research interest includes synthetic aperture radar satellite system design and application. E-mail: ztzhangqj@163.com||LONG Teng was born in 1968. He received his B.S. degree from the University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China, in 1989, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT), Beijing, China, in 1991 and 1995, respectively. He became a full professor at the Department of Electronic Engineering, BIT, in 2000. He was a visiting scholar with Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA, and University College London, London, U.K., in 1999 and 2002, respectively. From 2009 to 2016, he was the Dean of the School of Information and Electronics, BIT. Since 2019, he has been the President of BIT. He is an Academician of Chineses Academy of Engineering. He has authored or coauthored more than 300 articles. His research is mainly about synthetic aperture radar (SAR) systems and real-time digital signal processing, with applications to radar and communication systems. E-mail: longteng@bit.edu.cn||ZHAO Baojun was born in 1960. He received his Ph.D. degree in electromagnetic measurement technology and equipment from Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China, in 1996. From 1996 to 1998, he was a postdoctoral fellow at Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT), Beijing, China. Currently, he is a full professor, Vice Director of Laboratory and Equipment Management, and Director of the National Signal Acquisition and Processing Professional Laboratory. His research is mainly about the theory and technology of multi-spectral image fusion, recognition and tracking, real-time compression, restoration and transmission of high-resolution images. E-mail: zbj@bit.edu.cn

Abstract:

The paper designs a peripheral maximum gray difference (PMGD) image segmentation method, a connected-component labeling (CCL) algorithm based on dynamic run length (DRL), and a real-time implementation streaming processor for DRL-CCL. And it verifies the function and performance in space target monitoring scene by the carrying experiment of Tianzhou-3 cargo spacecraft (TZ-3). The PMGD image segmentation method can segment the image into highly discrete and simple point targets quickly, which reduces the generation of equivalences greatly and improves the real-time performance for DRL-CCL. Through parallel pipeline design, the storage of the streaming processor is optimized by 55% with no need for external memory, the logic is optimized by 60%, and the energy efficiency ratio is 12 times than that of the graphics processing unit, 62 times than that of the digital signal proccessing, and 147 times than that of personal computers. Analyzing the results of 8756 images completed on-orbit, the speed is up to 5.88 FPS and the target detection rate is 100%. Our algorithm and implementation method meet the requirements of lightweight, high real-time, strong robustness, full-time, and stable operation in space irradiation environment.

Key words: Tianzhou-3 cargo spacecraft (TZ-3), connected-component labeling (CCL) algorithms, parallel pipeline processing, on-orbit space target detection, streaming processor