Primitive-based 3D Abstraction Method for Spacecraft ISAR Images

Inverse Synthetic Aperture Radar (ISAR) images of spacecraft are composed of discrete scatterers that exhibit weak texture, high dynamics, and discontinuity. These characteristics result in sparse point clouds obtained using traditional algorithms for the Three-Dimensional (3D) reconstruction of spacecraft ISAR images. Furthermore, using point clouds to comprehensively describe the complete shape of targets is difficult, which consequently hampers the accurate extraction of the structural and pose parameters of the target. To address this problem, considering that space targets usually have specific modular structures, this paper proposes a method for abstracting parametric structural primitives from space target ISAR images to represent their 3D structures. First, the energy accumulation algorithm is used to obtain the sparse point cloud of the target from ISAR images. Subsequently, the point cloud is fitted using parameterized primitives. Finally, primitives are projected onto the ISAR imaging plane and optimized by maximizing their similarity with the target image to obtain the optimal 3D representation of the target primitives. Compared with the traditional point cloud 3D reconstruction, this method can provide a more complete description of the three-dimensional structure of the target. Meanwhile, primitive parameters obtained using this method represent the attitude and structure of the target and can directly support subsequent tasks such as target recognition and analysis. Simulation experiments demonstrate that this method can effectively achieve the 3D abstraction of space targets based on ISAR sequential images. ©The Author(s) 2024.