Title:
METHOD AND DEVICE FOR AUTO MAPPING
Document Type and Number:
Japanese Patent JPS5654476
Kind Code:
A
Abstract:
In a system for automatically mapping the surface of a celestial body (3), such as the earth, a relatively stable satellite is placed into a near polar, sun-synchronous orbit about the body. The satellite includes three solid-state linear sensing photo-detector sets (7, 9, 11) mounted transversely to the satellite heading (5). Two sets (7, 11) are oriented at the same acute angle to the geometric vertical but one (7) is aimed forward and the other (11) aft along the apparent track of the satellite with respect to the body. The other, (9) is oriented downward toward the geometric vertical with respect to the body. Two of the three sets are used in a given time period to sense the surface of the body with the satellite velocity providing a continuously imaging mode. In areas of rugged terrain, one of the angled sets (7 or 11) and the vertical set (9) are used to sense or image elements (27) of linear strips of the body disposed parallel to the apparent path of the satellite with respect to the surface of the body. For areas of relatively flat terrain the fore and aft sets (7 and 11) are used to image the body. In either case, data is acquired by sensing elements (27) of strips from a first position in space with a first set (7), and then when the satellite has moved to a second position, imaging the same elements (27) of each strip with a second set (9 or 11). The first and second satellite positions and the incremental element (27) on the ground define an epipolar plane. Sensing of the strip by the first set produces a first one-dimensional flow of data. Sensing of the strip by the second set produces a second one-dimensional flow of data which, when correlated with the data from the first set, results in data representative of elevational information for each element of each strip. The data from the sets may be in either panchromatic (single band) or multispectral (mult-band) mode. The system allows near real-time mapping of a surface since the imaged areas being compared are included in an epipolar plane, thus making data correlation for topographic information a matter of comparing the two one-dimensional records of the body's surface.
Inventors:
ARUDEN PAATORITSUJI KORUBOKORE
Application Number:
JP13274280A
Publication Date:
May 14, 1981
Filing Date:
September 24, 1980
Export Citation:
Assignee:
US GOVERNMENT (US)
International Classes:
G09B27/00; B43L13/00; G01C11/02; (IPC1-7): B43L13/00; G09B27/00