Speakers
Description
CORTO: A Collaborative Rendering Library for Space Applications
The Celestial Objects Rendering Tool (CORTO) is an open-access, object-oriented Python repository that leverages Blender’s capabilities to synthetically generate large, annotated datasets for computer vision tasks. Designed with modularity and accessibility as core strengths, CORTO aims to facilitate collaboration among researchers in creating a reliable, easy-to-use image-label pair generator. Its primary goal is to simplify dataset generation, allowing image processing developers to focus on pipeline design, validation, verification, and testing rather than data creation. This is particularly valuable for optical navigation tasks, which involve complex, interdisciplinary pipelines that transform image data into relative pose solutions.
CORTO has been applied in two CubeSat missions, Milani and LUMIO. For Milani, it supported the validation and testing of image processing algorithms for the CubeSat's GNC subsystem, while for LUMIO, it tested a lunar limb-based navigation algorithm. CORTO was also utilized in the ASI/ESA projects DeepNav and StarNav to develop deep learning datasets and star tracker images for lunar and small body operations.
While CORTO currently supports scenarios involving minor bodies and the Moon, future updates will expand its capabilities to include other planetary phenomena and environments. The talk will be focused on the scenarios currently covered by the tool, namely, planetary exploration, small bodies, and artificial bodies.
Overview of testing and simulation capabilities of the EXTREMA Simulation Hub
The ERC-funded EXTREMA project aims to empower deep-space CubeSats with autonomous guidance, navigation, and control capabilities. To achieve this, EXTREMA is built on three foundational Pillars, designed to develop the necessary algorithm to achieve higher degrees of autonomy for cost-effective interplanetary probes.
The core of EXTREMA lies in the EXTREMA Simulation Hub (ESH), a distributed facility in which interplanetary transfers are simulated under a variable acceleration paradigm. The ESH features an air-bearing attitude simulation platform dedicated to extended V&V activities for ADC systems and algorithms; a camera-in-the-loop optical facility to test navigation and image processing capabilities with accurate geometric and radiometric fidelity; and a thruster test bench, which is able to mimic the behavior of continuous thrust engines to test control boards and algorithms. All the facilities are interconnected through a dedicated sensing suite and a high-fidelity numerical propagator, whose task is to collect the physical states of the facilities and close the loop with the additional virtualized degrees of freedom. Eventually, a monitoring and control unit enables supervision and simulation flow control.
While the ESH has been developed targeting deep space mission scenarios, it can be employed to test and characterize spacecraft systems dedicated to different scenarios, including star trackers, reaction wheels, power management systems, and on-board flight software. Future developments aim to integrate the ESH in existing CI/CD frameworks, enabling streamlined X-in-the-loop testing for a variety of applications.
