Skylight Polarization Orientation Method for Occlusion Scene

To diminish the impact of the obstructions and further boost the navigation accuracy, an SO-Otsu method based on the snake optimization (SO) algorithm is proposed for polarization navigation and orientation. By utilizing the polarization distribution pattern, the sky polarization degree image is segmented by the SO-Otsu method to design a binary masking. Then, the binary masking is used to extract valid sky polarization information pixels and remove abnormal pixels containing occlusions. Finally, the retained valid pixels are combined with the Rayleigh scattering model of the sky to calculate the solar vector to further obtain the heading angle, achieving polarization navigation and orientation. Experimental results demonstrate in scenarios with occlusion rates ranging from 35% to 83%, the proposed method can maintain a maximum heading angle error below 1.52° and the root mean square error is less than 0.72°, satisfying the requirements for polarization navigation.