Shape Approximation in Camera Fields of View for Parachute Visibility Applications

Abstract

The ability to simulate camera line of sight and field of view is a powerful capability for flight mechanics simulations. This paper improves upon an existing camera visibility implementation that leverages geometry to estimate parachute visibility from a singular point by introducing a shape discretization method. The new method approximates a shape as a set of analytical points relative to a target marker within any number of camera fields of view. The method is developed in such a way to be generalized to a myriad of spacecraft applications. This effort focuses on an implementation to simulate parachute canopy visibility within the combined field of view of three cameras but additional applications are discussed. Monte Carlo analysis is used to assess the parachute canopy visibility example and demonstrate its improved performance over the previous method.