Autonomous distant visual silhouetting of satellites

This paper develops a new technique useful for the autonomous distant visual silhouetting of satellites. New statistical straight line snakes (SSLS) prove efficient in finding the silhouette, even in the unilluminated case. The silhouette is composed of straight line segments, which are easy to calculate, fit the straight lines inherent in man-made objects, and lend themselves to further processing (pose estimation, template matching, etc.) Simulations illustrate the technique on images obtained when viewing low Earth orbit satellites from the ground.