A comparative study on model-based pose estimation of flying objects with different feature descriptors

Methods for pose estimation of flying objects are introduced. Among them is the model-based optical method. We focus on the feature description aspect in model-based method. Feature descriptors of chain codes, moments, Fourier descriptors are used for 2D silhouette or region description. Common issues and techniques, particularly representation and normalization, of such three kinds of descriptors in the application of model-based pose estimation are analyzed. We build a Matlab pose estimation framework to compare pose estimation procedures using different feature descriptors. A missile model of MilkShape 3D file format is created as the simulation object. Experiments concerning with the abilities of descriptors are proceeded to show the difference of these descriptors.