Development of a Tracklet Extraction Engine

TL;DR

This paper presents 'tracee', an efficient and robust algorithm for extracting colinear line segments from large 3D point data, useful for detecting moving objects like space debris and satellites.

Contribution

The paper introduces 'tracee', a novel two-step algorithm that efficiently detects colinear points in 3D space, robust against distractors and crossings, applicable beyond its initial purpose.

Findings

Successfully detects colinear segments in large 3D datasets

Robust against distractors and crossing line segments

Applicable to various domains beyond space object detection

Abstract

An efficient algorithm is required to extract moving objects (asteroids, satellites, and space debris) from enormous data with advances in observational instruments. We have developed an algorithm, tracee, to swiftly detect points aligned as a line segment from a three-dimensional space. The algorithm consists of two steps; First, construct a k-nearest neighbor graph of given points, and then extract colinear line segments by grouping. The proposed algorithm is robust against distractors and works properly even when line segments are crossed. While the algorithm is originally developed for moving object detection, it can be used for other purposes.