This book summarizes a decade of research advances in star identification by the author’s team, systematically introducing the principles, general methods, key techniques, and practical algorithms. It highlights the importance of star identification for celestial navigation, enhancing the performance of star sensors. The content covers the fundamentals of star sensors and celestial navigation, processing star catalogs and images, and various identification techniques, including modified triangle algorithms, star patterns, and neural networks. It also addresses rapid star tracking through star matching between adjacent frames, alongside hardware implementation and performance evaluations of the algorithms. This resource serves as a valuable reference for star sensor designers and researchers in pattern recognition and related fields. Additionally, it functions as a teaching resource for senior postgraduate and graduate students in information processing, computer science, artificial intelligence, aeronautics, astronautics, automation, and instrumentation. Dr. Guangjun Zhang, a professor at Beihang University and its Vice President, leads this comprehensive exploration of star identification advancements.
