High-Performance Embedded Computing in Space: Evaluation of Platforms for Vision-Based Navigation

Vision-based navigation has become increasingly important in a variety of space applications for enhancing autonomy and dependability. Future missions, such as active debris removal for remediating the low Earth orbit environment, will rely on novel high-performance avionics to support advanced image processing algorithms with substantial workloads. However, when designing new avionics architectures, constraints relating to the use of electronics in space present great challenges, further exacerbated by the need for significantly faster processing compared to conventional space-grade central processing units. With the long-term goal of designing high-performance embedded computers for space, in this paper, an extended study and tradeoff analysis of a diverse set of computing platforms and architectures (i.e., central processing units, multicore digital signal processors, graphics processing units, and field-programmable gate arrays) are performed with radiation-hardened and commercial off-the-shelf technology. Overall, the study involves more than 30 devices and 10 benchmarks, which are selected after exploring the algorithms and specifications required for vision-based navigation. The present analysis combines literature survey and in-house development/testing to derive a sizable consistent picture of all possible solutions. Among others, the results show that certain 28 nm system-on-chip devices perform faster than space-grade and embedded central processing units by 1–3 orders of magnitude, while consuming less than 10 W. Field-programmable gate array platforms provide the highest performance per watt ratio.