High-Efficiency Microsatellite-Using Super-Resolution Algorithm Based on the Multi-Modality Super-CMOS Sensor

Sensors (Basel). 2020 Jul 20;20(14):4019. doi: 10.3390/s20144019.

Abstract

To realize the application of super-resolution technology from theory to practice, and to improve microsatellite spatial resolution, we propose a special super-resolution algorithm based on the multi-modality super-CMOS sensor which can adapt to the limited operation capacity of microsatellite computers. First, we designed an oblique sampling mode with the sensor rotated at an angle of 26.56 ∘ ( arctan 1 2 ) to obtain high overlap ratio images with sub-pixel displacement. Secondly, the proposed super-resolution algorithm was applied to reconstruct the final high-resolution image. Because the satellite equipped with this sensor is scheduled to be launched this year, we also designed the simulation mode of conventional sampling and the oblique sampling of the sensor to obtain the comparison and experimental data. Lastly, we evaluated the super-resolution quality of images, the effectiveness, the practicality, and the efficiency of the algorithm. The results of the experiments showed that the satellite-using super-resolution algorithm combined with multi-modality super-CMOS sensor oblique-mode sampling can increase the spatial resolution of an image by about 2 times. The algorithm is simple and highly efficient, and can realize the super-resolution reconstruction of two remote-sensing images within 0.713 s, which has good performance on the microsatellite.

Keywords: algorithm engineering; microsatellite spatial resolution; multi-modality; oblique sampling mode; rotatable sensor; super-resolution.