Development of high-accuracy image centroiding algorithm for CMOS-based digital sun sensors

A digital sun sensor calculates the incident sunlight angle using the sunlight image registered on a Complimentary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) image sensor. In order to accomplish this, an exact center of the sunlight image has to be determined. Therefore, an accurate estimate of the centroid is the most important factor in digital sun sensor development. The most general method for determining the centroid is the thresholding method, and this method is also the simplest and easy to implement. Another centering algorithm often used is the image filtering method that utilizes image processing. The sun sensor accuracy using these methods, however, is quite susceptible to noise in the detected sunlight intensity. This is especially true in the thresholding method where the accuracy changes according to the threshold level. In this paper, a template method that uses the sunlight image model to determine the centroid of the sunlight image is suggested, and the performance has been compared and analyzed. The template method suggested, unlike the thresholding and image filtering method, has comparatively higher accuracy. In addition, it has the advantage of having consistent level of accuracy regardless of the noise level, which results in a higher reliability.