Rachel Oliver, Air Force Institute of Technology; Paul Rickershauser, Air Force Institute of Technology; Brian McReynolds, U.S. Air Force Academy
Keywords: Event-Based Sensors, Neuromorphic Sensors, Occultation, Dark Object Detection, Space Domain Awareness
Abstract:
Event-based vision sensors (EVS) are poised to revolutionize Space Domain Awareness (SDA) due to their exceptional change detection capabilities. In this paper, we present a simulation-based study on the feasibility of using commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) EVS for detecting and tracking satellites in the presence of a bright lunar background. We hypothesize that lower incident photon flux per pixel will enable sensitivity to smaller differences in flux from occulting resident space objects (RSOs) due to the dynamic range offered by threshold change detection. To further explore the hypothesis of detectability of occluding objects with EVS, we update an EVS simulation previously built to recreate EVSdata streams for SDA applications. We show that the geometry between the observer and occluded RSOs as well as the occluding RSO’s pixel traversal rate are primary drivers of the pixel photocurrent and, therefore, key factors in the logarithmic difference required to generate events. We demonstrate that an optimal photocurrent exists which enables extension of event generation for smaller object sizes at all tested pixel traversal speeds. We conclude that any future design of an EVS SDA system focused on observing occlusion events must consider the magnitude of the current to enhance the sensor’s sensitivity.
Date of Conference: September 16-19, 2025
Track: Space Domain Awareness