Abstract: Visual methods are widely used for noncooperative targets navigation because there is no communication among satellites and noncooperative targets like space debris. To solve the uncertainty positions caused by aberrations of visual sensors, a stereoscopic visual navigation strategy based on satellite formation was formulated. Firstly, a longbaseline visual sensor was constructed by satellite formation. The observability of the system was analyzed and verified by Fisher matrix. Secondly, the error analysis of the stereo sensor was performed, and by arranging the optimal parallax angle, the measurement information fusion of multiple satellites was optimized. Finally, the proposed method is applied in the navigation of space debris. The simulation results demonstrate that the satellite navigation based visual navigation can significantly reduce the observation errors, the accuracy can reach the order of 0.1m, and the formation configuration is simple and easy to implement.

Key words: space debris, satellites, stereo vision, observability, navigation