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Advances in Space Research xxx (2016) xxx–xxx
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Randomized Hough transform filter for echo extraction in DLR

Tong Liu a,c,⇑, Hao Chen b, Ming Shen a, Pengqi Gao a, You Zhao a
a
National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 20A Datun Road, Beijing 100012, China
b
Beijing Institute of Tracking and Telecommunications Technology, 26 Beiqing Road, Beijing 100094, China
c
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 19A Yuquan Road, Beijing 100049, China

Received 30 March 2016; received in revised form 3 July 2016; accepted 5 July 2016

Abstract

The signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of debris laser ranging (DLR) data is extremely low, and the valid returns in the DLR range residuals
are distributed on a curve in a long observation time. Therefore, it is hard to extract the signals from noise in the Observed-minus-
Calculated (O-C) residuals with low SNR. In order to autonomously extract the valid returns, we propose a new algorithm based on
randomized Hough transform (RHT). We firstly pre-process the data using histogram method to find the zonal area that contains all
the possible signals to reduce large amount of noise. Then the data is processed with RHT algorithm to find the curve that the signal
points are distributed on. A new parameter update strategy is introduced in the RHT to get the best parameters. We also analyze the
values of the parameters in the algorithm.
We test our algorithm on the 10 Hz repetition rate DLR data from Yunnan Observatory and 100 Hz repetition rate DLR data from
Graz SLR station. For 10 Hz DLR data with relative larger and similar range gate, we can process it in real time and extract all the
signals autonomously with a few false readings. For 100 Hz DLR data with longer observation time, we autonomously post-process
DLR data of 0.9%, 2.7%, 8% and 33% return rate with high reliability. The extracted points contain almost all signals and a low per-
centage of noise. Additional noise is added to 10 Hz DLR data to get lower return rate data. The valid returns can also be well extracted
for DLR data with 0.18% and 0.1% return rate.
Ó 2016 COSPAR. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Debris laser ranging; Valid returns extraction; Histogram method; Randomized Hough transform

1. Introduction measurement technology, debris laser ranging (DLR) has

The existence and growth of space debris pose a great
threat to the safety of spacecraft such as space stations
and satellites in orbit. In order to avoid the disaster like
the collision between Iridium 33 and Cosmos 2251, the
surveillance, collision warning and mitigation of space deb-
ris have aroused worldwide concern. However, the open-
access catalog of two line elements (TLEs) using radar
and optical tracking data often cannot provide sufficient
orbit accuracy for collision avoidance. As a high precision
⇑ Corresponding author at: National Astronomical Observatories,
Chinese Academy of Sciences, 20A Datun Road, Beijing 100012, China.
E-mail address: liutong@nao.cas.cn (T. Liu).
been widely studied in the past few years. The analysis
and process of DLR data also have attracted attention
from worldwide scientists (Kirchner et al., 2013;
Kucharski et al., 2013a; Sang et al., 2014a,b; Bennett
et al., 2015), especially the scientists of the Mt Stromlo
SLR station in Australia. As non-cooperative targets, the
diffuse reflection of debris is of extremely low SNR.
Although there are range gates and optical filters for noise
reduction in debris laser ranging systems, those valid
returns are also drowned by the noise points. The fast
and autonomous extraction of valid echoes from the back-
ground noise is one of the preliminary works for DLR, and
it is also important for lunar laser ranging (LLR) and satel-
lite laser ranging (SLR) in daylight.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.asr.2016.07.007
0273-1177/Ó 2016 COSPAR. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Please cite this article in press as: Liu, T., et al. Randomized Hough transform filter for echo extraction in DLR. Adv. Space Res. (2016), http://
dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.asr.2016.07.007
2 T. Liu et al. / Advances in Space Research xxx (2016) xxx–xxx
A variety of valid echo extraction algorithms have been
developed in the past few decades, which also include some
methods for detecting returns of LLR and SLR. The Pois-
son filter was firstly used for LLR in McDonald observa-
tory (Abbot et al., 1973), and this method has been
adapted for SLR and DLR (Ricklefs et al., 1993; Hiener
et al., 2006). The algorithm assumes that the noise is of
Poisson distribution, and the valid data is linearly corre-
lated in short time. EOS company of Australian has real-
ized autonomous data processing in the observatory of
Mt Stromlo using Poisson filter (Luck et al., 2000). NASA
introduces Correlation Range Receiver (CRR) in
SLR2000. In CRR, the O-C plot is gridded into small cells,
each cell is of the same range bin and time units. The total
count in each cell is compared to pre-determined threshold
to determine whether the cell contains signal or not
(Degnan et al., 2002). The performance of this method is
greatly related to the threshold and the size of the cell.
The Graz SLR station identifies possible returns by com-
paring the new residuals with the last 1000 returns; if some
minimum number of returns are within a certain band, the
new one is treated as possible echoes (Kirchner et al., 2004,
2013). For the fast spinning satellite Ajisai, they try to use
spectral filter for noise reduction (Kucharski et al., 2013a).
A recursive filter algorithm was proposed by Hiener (2006)
for identification of satellite return signals in daylight
passes, and the Wettzell Laser Ranging System has already
been updated with this algorithm.
The Poisson filter and recursive filter aforementioned
are based on the linear distribution of the returns within
a short time. Before analyzing and processing the residuals,
the length of the time interval should be determined to
guarantee the linear distribution of the echoes. But there
is no significant mathematical relationship between the
length of time interval and the space-object and station
geometry. So the length of interval cannot be figured out
easily for different objects and different observation sta-
tions. To solve this problem and effectively process the data
distributed on a curve, we propose a fast and autonomous
data extraction method based on RHT. This paper is
divided into seven parts altogether. Section 1 introduces
the background and an overview of recent developments
of the extraction methods. The main idea of the whole
algorithm is given in Section 2, and in Section 3 we present
the details of data pre-processing method. Section 4
attempts to analyze the values of some parameters in
RHT and give the steps of RHT extraction algorithm. Sec-
tion 5 provides the processing results of the DLR data
from two stations and makes a discussion on the results.
Section 6 offers some concluding remarks and proposes
future works.
2. Brief of the method
Traditionally, the signals in the O-C residuals are sup-
posed to be on a straight line in a short time. But as is men-
tioned by Xu (2010), the values of time bias and range bias
Please cite this article in press as: Liu, T., et al. Randomized Hough transform filter for echo extraction in DLR. Adv. Space Res. (2016), http://
dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.asr.2016.07.007
which affect O-C residuals vary from time to time, so it is
more reasonable to consider O-C residuals on a curve.
Samwel et al. (2005, 2015) analyzed the SLR range residu-
als and used polynomial to fit the data, results show the
polynomial technique performed well. Therefore, the prob-
lem of extracting valid returns from the O-C residuals is
equivalent to extracting the curve in the image space. The
curve formed by the valid signals from good prediction
and observation should be distributed in a zonal area with
small slope. That means there is a boundary for all the
valid echoes, and the bounded area is narrower with higher
data quality. As is shown in Fig. 1, in the left figure, the sig-
nal data with relative small range bias and time bias are
distributed in a narrow horizontal band. While in the right
one, both the range bias and time bias vary largely with
time. If the observation time is relative longer, the time
span can be divided into several segments, while curve in
every segment is like the one in the left figure. But if the
bias varies so largely in a too short time span, we consider
there may be something wrong with the prediction or the
observation data. As for spinning satellites and rotating
debris, their O-C residuals distribute on periodic curve
and the signal curve may oscillate with several meters.
In the following discussion, we just consider the similar
situation as the left figure. The range bias and time bias of
the data vary by a relatively small amount. In order to rec-
ognize the curve easily and quickly, before the extraction,
we pre-process the data to reduce the noise in the residuals.
Fig. 2 shows the diagram of our whole algorithm.
3. Pre-processing method
The aim of data pre-processing is to reduce the noise in
the range residuals, so that we can extract those valid
echoes more easily and quickly. Learning from Vacek
(2015), here a histogram method is used to detect the zonal
area that contains the possible echoes. The main idea of the
method is to find the center line, which means the expected
zonal area is found at the same time. We can also convert
the problem to the searching of the slope k and the inter-
cept b of a straight line l : y ¼ kx þ b. Linear fitting is car-
ried out to narrow the slope search scope, then we get a
pre-defined appropriate range of slope. The details of the
pre-processing method are presented as follows.
step 1 Put all the data points into empty set D, and use
linear fitting method to find a straight line
l1 : y 1 ¼ k 1 x þ b1 . Assume that the search scope
of the line’s slope is limited to ðk e þ k 1 ; k e þ k 1 Þ
and the search step is set to 0:1. Set the number
of cycles i ¼ 0.
step 2 Start cycle. Set k i ¼ k 1 þ 0:1  i  k e and we can
get li : y i ¼ k i x þ b1 .
step 3 Calculate the distances between li and all the
points in set D. Group these data points by the dis-
tances and number each one. Ensure the dotted
lines used for grouping in Fig. 3 are equally spaced.
 T. Liu et al. / Advances in Space Research xxx (2016) xxx–xxx
Fig. 1. The diagram of the range residuals.
Fig. 2. The simplified flow chart of the whole algorithm.
step 4 Count the number of the returns in every group.
Find the group which has the most data points.
Record the number of returns as number mðiÞ
and record its group number as count ðiÞ.
step 5 i ¼ i þ 1, check whether 0:1  i P 2  k e , if
0:1  i < 2  k e go to step 2; Otherwise, go to step 6.
step 6 Search the maximum value of mðiÞ and record it as
mðIÞ. Assume that count ðIÞ is the group number
corresponding to mðIÞ. We can get the slope
k ¼ k 1 þ 0:1  I  k e and the intercept b of a
straight line by mðIÞ and count ðIÞ.
step 7 Get the expected line l : y ¼ kx þ b.
step 8 Delete all the data points in set D except the
points, which are within a certain range (for exam-
ple, 200 meters) from the line l. So far, the pre-
treatment of the data is finished.
In the pre-processing cycle, for every slope, there is a
group count ðiÞ which contains mðiÞ returns. We get the group
through finite one-dimensional searching, which features
fast. As is shown in Fig. 3, the zonal area containing all
the valid returns must have the most data points among
Please cite this article in press as: Liu, T., et al. Randomized Hough transform filter for echo extraction in DLR. Adv. Space Res. (2016), http://
dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.asr.2016.07.007
3
all the groups count ðiÞ ði ¼ 0; 1; 2; . . .Þ. The center line of
the zonal area is the matched one we expected to find.
4. Signal extractions using RHT filter
Hough transform is one of the commonly used methods
for curve detecting in image processing. Based on the
method of randomized sampling and traditional Hough
transform, Xu (1990) proposed a new method called ran-
domized Hough transform (RHT), and presented the basic
idea and general procedure of RHT (Xu et al., 1990, 2008).
Compared with the traditional Hough transform, the new
algorithm largely reduces the computational and memory
cost. It randomly selects several points in the image space
and maps them to a point in the parameter space. Use
parameter set P with each element containing a parameter
vector and a score to represent the parameter space. If the
Euclidean distance of two points in parameter space is
within a predetermined threshold, the two parameter vec-
tors are updated to a new one, and its score is added by
one. Finally, the parameter vector with the maximum of
scores represents the detected curve in the image space.
In this section, we firstly present our new parameter update
method and analyze the range of the parameters in RHT,
then give the specific steps and flow diagram of the whole
algorithm.
4.1. Parameter update strategy
As is mentioned in the basic ideas of RHT (Xu et al.,
1990), there is an element in parameter set P contains
parameter vector pc and its score. Supposing pc ¼
ða1 ; a2 ; . . . ; aj ; . . .Þ includes parameters a1 ; a2 ; . . . ; aj ; . . .,
these parameters can also be considered as coordinates in
multidimensional parameter space. Those coordinates rep-
resent a curve in the image space. When the score of pc is n,
the updated values of parameters are b a 1;n ; b
a 2;n ; . . . ; b
a j;n ; . . ..
Given a predetermined threshold value d, if another
parameter vector p satisfies jjpc  pjj 6 d, add the score
of pc by one and update pc with the average of old param-
eters b a 1;n ; b
a 2;n ; . . . ; b
a j;n ; . . . and the new parameters
a1;nþ1 ; a2;nþ1 ; . . . ; aj;nþ1 ; . . .. After analyzing their statistical
property, we find that this update strategy is not the best
4 T. Liu et al. / Advances in Space Research xxx (2016) xxx–xxx

Fig. 3. The diagram of the pre-processing method.

estimation. Supposing pc holds the highest score S c , accord- X

Sc

ing to the update strategy aforementioned a j;S c Þ ¼

Varðb q2n r2aj ð6Þ
n¼1
b
a j;1 ¼ aj;1
According to Eqs. (5) and (6), the estimation of param-
b
a j;2 ¼ ðb
a j;1 þ aj;2 Þ=2 eter aj is always unbiased. We can get the minimum vari-
.. PS c 2
ð1Þ ance unbiased estimation only when the value of n¼1 qn
.
is minimum. According to the Cauchy–Schwartz inequality
SX
c 1
!2 ,
b
a j;S c ¼ ðb
a j;S c 1 þ aj;S c Þ=2 ¼ aj;nþ1 =2S c n þ aj1 =2S c 1 XSc XSc
n¼1 q2n P qn Sc ð7Þ
n¼1 n¼1
We consider aj;n (n ¼ 1; 2; . . . ; S c ) are independently and
identically distributed. Take a Gaussian distribution for ‘=’ holds when q1 ¼ q2 ¼ . . . ¼ qS c ¼ S1c . That means when
instance; laj and raj refer to the mean and standard devia- the weight of aj;n ðn ¼ 1; 2; . . . ; S c Þ are equal, the parameter
tion of the Gaussian distribution. Then the mean and vari- b
a j;S c that we get is the minimum variance unbiased estima-
ance of the parameter are tion. So our parameter update strategy is presented as
! follows
SX
c 1
S c 1 S c n
Eðba j;S c Þ ¼ E aj;1 =2 þ aj;nþ1 =2 ¼ laj ð2Þ b
a j;1 ¼ aj;1
n¼1
!   b
a j;2 ¼ ðb
a j;1 þ aj;2 Þ=2
SX
c 1
S c 1 S c n 1 2 ..
a j;Sc Þ ¼ Var aj;1 =2
Varðb þ aj;nþ1 =2 ¼ þ r2 ð8Þ
n¼1
3 3  4S c 1 aj .
ð3Þ ðS c  1Þba j;S c 1 aj;S c
b
a j;S c ¼ þ
Sc Sc
Though the estimation of parameter is unbiased, its
variance is huge. The weight of the last parameter aj;S c is
the largest, leading the final parameter estimation to be 4.2. Discussion about the parameters’ values
of large variance, thus the parameter may not be accurate
enough. In order to solve this problem, we introduce a new Besides the parameter update strategy in RHT, the val-
parameter update strategy, supposing ues of the parameters in the algorithm is also of great
importance, so we should analyze the parameters’ values
X
Sc
b
a j;S c ¼ qn aj;n ð4Þ in RHT filter.
n¼1 If the signals in the O-C residuals are distributed on a
quadratic polynomial curve satisfying y e ¼ ae x2 þ be x þ ce ,
q is the relative weight of parameter aj;n satisfying the corresponding parameter vector in the parameter
Pn S c
n¼1 qn ¼ 1, then the mean and variance of the parameter a; e
space is pe ¼ ðae ; be ; ce Þ. Supposing p ¼ ðe b; e
c Þ satisfies
are jjp  pe jj 6 d in the parameter space, the points in the image
X
Sc space that correspond with parameter vector p are all
a j;S c Þ ¼
Eðb qn laj ¼ laj ð5Þ considered to be effective echoes. We should figure out the
n¼1 upper envelope and lower envelope of these points in order

Please cite this article in press as: Liu, T., et al. Randomized Hough transform filter for echo extraction in DLR. Adv. Space Res. (2016), http://
dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.asr.2016.07.007
 T. Liu et al. / Advances in Space Research xxx (2016) xxx–xxx 5
( pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
a; e
to determine the value of d. When jjðe b; e
c Þ  ðae ; be ; ce Þjj ¼ y 1 ¼ y e þ d 1 þ x2 þ x4
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi ð18Þ
d, we have y 2 ¼ y e  d 1 þ x2 þ x4
8
<e
> a ¼ ae þ dcosccosg
The diagram of area Q is shown in Fig. 4. If the valid
e
b ¼ be þ dcoscsing ð9Þ
>
: echoes of DLR are distributed on cubic curve, similar to
e
c ¼ ce þ dsinc the derivation of quadratic curve, the envelope of effective
where c and g are the azimuth and pitching angle in the area are
( pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
parameter space. Then the curve that corresponds to y 1 ¼ y e þ d 1 þ x2 þ x4 þ x6
a; e
ðe b; e
c Þ is pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi ð19Þ
y 2 ¼ y e  d 1 þ x2 þ x4 þ x6
e a x2 þ e
y¼e bx þ ec
The valid echoes are distributed on a curve in a longer
¼ y e þ dx2 cosðcÞcosðgÞ þ dxcosðcÞsinðgÞ þ dsinðcÞ ð10Þ time segment. However, traditional DLR processing meth-
If T 1 ¼ x2 cosðcÞcosðgÞ þ xcosðcÞsinðgÞ þ sinðcÞ, then ods (such as Poisson filter method and CRR method) make
the assumption that the valid echoes are linearly correlated
e a x2 þ e
y¼e bx þ ec ¼ y e þ dT 1 ð11Þ in a short time. In the early stage of extraction study, we
make the same assumption too, and try to use RHT
The expressions for upper envelope and lower envelope
method to detect the straight line that valid echoes locate
can be obtained by the following derivation.
on. But it is hard to determine the time segment length to
T 1 ¼ x2 cosðcÞcosðgÞ þ xcosðcÞsinðgÞ þ sinðcÞ guarantee the assumption for different passes. Improper
¼ cosðcÞðx2 cosðcÞ þ xsinðgÞÞ þ sinðcÞ choice of the segment length will lead to some valid echoes
  being missed (at the beginning or end of the time segment)
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
¼ x2 þ x4 cosðcÞ pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
x2 ffi
cosðgÞ þ pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
x ffi
sinðgÞ þ sinðcÞ and some noise points to be false detected. Sliding window
x2 þx4 x2 þx4
may be a good alternative to solve this problem. But as is
ð12Þ shown in Fig. 5, the processing result of DLR data from
Yunnan Observatory, the missing points were largely
If cosðhÞ ¼ pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
x2ffi ; sinðhÞ ¼ pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
x ffi
, then
2 x þx
4 2 x þx
4 reduced, but some false readings also existed. So we just
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi consider the valid returns locate around a curve, and avoid
T 1 ¼ x2 þ x4 cosðcÞcosðh  gÞ þ sinðcÞ ð13Þ the line assumption. According to the previous derivation
When cosðcÞ P 0 of upper envelope and lower envelope of area Q, we can
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi discuss the values of threshold d and the maximal sampling
T 1 6 x2 þ x4 cosðcÞ þ sinðcÞ number imax .
 
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi Supposing the total number of all the returns is N and
¼ 1 þ x2 þ x4 pxffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi ffi cosðcÞ þ pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
ffi sinðcÞ
2 þx4 1
1þx2 þx4 1þx2 þx4 the number of valid echoes is M. The repetition rate of
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi the DLR system is f r . The return rate of the DLR data
6 1 þ x2 þ x4
is r. The observation time span is T. Then N ¼ Tfr ;
ð14Þ M ¼ rN . If we successfully extract signals from the noise,
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
T1 P  x þ x cosðcÞ þ sinðcÞ
2 4 all the good points will fall into the area Q. We suppose
 
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi the noise points are uniformly distributed in the whole
¼  1 þ x2 þ x4 pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
x2 þx4 ffi
cosðcÞ þ pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
1 ffi sinðcÞ image area, the probability of noise points falling into area
1þx2 þx4 1þx2 þx4
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi Q is
P  1 þ x2 þ x4
ð15Þ
When cosðcÞ 6 0
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
T1 ¼ x2 þ x4 cosðcÞcosðh  gÞ þ sinðcÞ
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
6 x2 þ x4 cosðcÞ þ sinðcÞ ð16Þ
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
6 1 þ x2 þ x4
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
T1 ¼ x2 þ x4 cosðcÞcosðh  gÞ þ sinðcÞ
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
P x2 þ x4 cosðcÞ þ sinðcÞ ð17Þ
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
P  1 þ x2 þ x4
So we can get the upper envelope and lower envelope of
area Q, which contains all the possible valid echoes
Fig. 4. The diagram of effective area Q.

Please cite this article in press as: Liu, T., et al. Randomized Hough transform filter for echo extraction in DLR. Adv. Space Res. (2016), http://
dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.asr.2016.07.007
6 T. Liu et al. / Advances in Space Research xxx (2016) xxx–xxx
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
Z T Z ae x2 þbe xþce þd 1þx2 þx4 4.3. Details of RHT filter
1
P1 ¼ pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi dydx ð20Þ
S 0 ae x2 þbe xþce d 1þx2 þx4
Based on the new parameter update strategy and the
above discussion about parameters values, the concrete
where S is the occupied area of all the echoes. According steps of our RHT filter is given.
to Eq. (20), the number of noise points that fall into area
Q is step 1 Consider all the echoes remained in set D as points
M 1 ¼ P 1  ðN  MÞ ð21Þ in the image space, and set parameter set P to be
empty, sampling number i ¼ 0.
The total number of points falling into area Q is step 2 Randomly select 3 points ðxj ; y j Þ ðj ¼ 1; 2; 3Þ from
M2 ¼ M þ M1 ð22Þ set D with equal probability, and solve the follow-
ing joint equation
The threshold d is set to make the ratio of valid returns
and all the points in the area Q to be bigger than 80%, that f ða; b; c; xj ; y j Þ ¼ 0; j ¼ 1; 2; 3 ð25Þ
is
and get a parameter point p ¼ ða; b; cÞ in the
M M parameter space, which corresponds with a quad-
¼ P 0:8 ð23Þ
M2 M þ M1 ratic polynomial curve y ¼ ax2 þ bx þ c in the
image space.
We can get the values of threshold d according to Eqs.
step 3 Search through P to find whether there is a param-
(20)–(23). We use the empirical equations in RHT (Xu
eter point ps satisfying
et al., 1993) to give the value of the maximum sampling
number imax , which is jjp  ps jj 6 d ð26Þ
w
 N If exists, go to step 4, or else go to step 5.
imax ¼ ð10 100Þ ð24Þ
wwmin step 4 Add the score of ps by one, and update the param-
eter using Eq. (8), then go to step 6.
where w is the number of points needed to determine a
step 5 Add a new parameter p into parameter set P and
curve. We suppose the curve is quadratic polynomial curve,
set its score to be one, then goto step 6.
so w ¼ 3. In traditional RHT, wmin is set to be slighter lar-
step 6 i ¼ i þ 1, check whether i P imax , if i < imax goto
ger than the order of curve. To accurately and effectively
step 2; Otherwise, stop and find the element pmax
extract the signal curve, we set wmin to be close to the num-
with maximum score in parameter set P and go
ber of valid returns, we can roughly estimate wNmin according
to step 7.
to the estimation of DLR return rate. step 7 Map the parameter pmax back to the image space
Through the above derivation, we can give the values of and get an quadratic polynomial curve, the points
parameter threshold d and maximum sampling number imax surrounding this curve are thought to be the effec-
using Eqs. (23) and (24). tive echoes of DLR.

Fig. 5. The linear distributed echoes extracted by RHT.

Please cite this article in press as: Liu, T., et al. Randomized Hough transform filter for echo extraction in DLR. Adv. Space Res. (2016), http://
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 T. Liu et al. / Advances in Space Research xxx (2016) xxx–xxx 7

Fig. 6. The flow chart of the whole algorithm.

Table 1
The datails of the DLR data.
Objects Station Return rate (%) Valid returns Extracted returns
18,586 Yunnan Observatory 1.9 64 72
27387 Yunnan Observatory 2.8 32 37
36416 Graz SLR station 0.9 115 124
16810 Graz SLR station 2.7 373 406
37182 Graz SLR station 8.0 1015 1085
13403 Graz SLR station 33 10521 10573

Traditionally, there may be more than one curve to be
detected in an image when using RHT algorithm. So after
detecting one curve, the points on this curve will be deleted
and the main program go back to step 2. But for DLR data
extraction, there is usually only one target object, so there
is only one curve in the O-C residuals, the iteration proce-
dure stops after we get the ‘‘signal curve”.
The procedure given above is only about when the valid
echoes are thought to be on a quadratic polynomial curve.
For other type of curve, the procedure is similar, as is
shown in Fig. 6. The figure presents the flow chart of the
whole algorithm, including the histogram pre-processing
method and RHT filter.
In the RHT algorithm, the accuracy of the algorithm is
higher with smaller value of parameter d, but it will lead to
bigger storage. In the opposite, when the value of d is big-
ger, the storage is smaller, but it will result in bigger effec-
tive area Q. So the probability of noise points falling into
the area Q is higher, which will lead to lower algorithm
accuracy and more false readings. So the chosen threshold
d is an overall consideration of the storage, computational
cost, algorithm accuracy and false rate.
5. Method application and discussion
In order to test extraction effectiveness of this method in
different systems, This algorithm is applied to process the
DLR data from Yunnan Observatory and Graz SLR sta-
tion. The laser repetition rate of the system in Yunnan
Observatory is 10 Hz, and that of Graz station is 100 Hz.
Table 1 lists the details of these DLR data. The extraction
results are shown in Figs. 7–12 respectively.
Results show that this algorithm can extract the valid
echoes distributed on the signal curve with low storage

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dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.asr.2016.07.007
8 T. Liu et al. / Advances in Space Research xxx (2016) xxx–xxx

Fig. 7. NORAD 18586: 1.9% return rate; residuals before and after processing.

Fig. 8. NORAD 27387: 2.8% return rate; residuals before and after processing.

cost, less processing time and high automation. There are
almost no missing points, but a few false readings exist.
We analyze the reason for these false points in the follow-
ing paragraph.
In order to extract signals from all the points, we set a
parameter threshold d. The points falling into the effective
area Q determined by threshold d are all thought to be sig-
nal points. There are noise points falling in area Q inevita-
bly, which will lead to some points being falsely detected.
The valid returns are not only strictly distributed on the
quadratic polynomial curve, but also surround around it.
The threshold d is set to make sure that most of the signal
points fall into area Q. But for some debris, the signal
points of DLR echoes distribution are very sparse around

Please cite this article in press as: Liu, T., et al. Randomized Hough transform filter for echo extraction in DLR. Adv. Space Res. (2016), http://
dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.asr.2016.07.007
 T. Liu et al. / Advances in Space Research xxx (2016) xxx–xxx 9

Fig. 9. NORAD 36416: 0.9% return rate; residuals before and after processing.

Fig. 10. NORAD 16810: 2.7% return rate; residuals before and after processing.

the curve. In order to minimize the missing rate, we have to
set a relatively larger threshold d, which will in return lead
to some false readings.
In addition, the DLR receiver may detect only noise in
some time segments. In these time segments, The points
falling into area Q are all mistaken points. For example,
debris 18586, debris 27387 and debris 37182, there are sec-
onds of time when there are only noise points received.
This problem is solved primarily in this paper using time
correlation detection.
For DLR data from Yunnan Observatory, the range
gate during the relatively shorter observation time is simi-
lar and larger. So by using our histogram preprocessing
method, most of the noise points can be removed from

Please cite this article in press as: Liu, T., et al. Randomized Hough transform filter for echo extraction in DLR. Adv. Space Res. (2016), http://
dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.asr.2016.07.007
10 T. Liu et al. / Advances in Space Research xxx (2016) xxx–xxx
the original residuals. Then the pre-processed data is pro-
cessed with the RHT filter, and the signal points can be
extracted in a short time. As are shown in Figs. 7 and 8,
and Table 1, the good returns are all extracted.
For DLR data from Graz SLR station, the observation
time is longer and the repetition is higher. For instance, the
observation time of debris 13403 is more than 400 s. The
signal points may not lie on quadratic or cubic curve,
which is the same situation as the right figure of Fig. 1 in
Section 2. In order to eliminate the complexity of extract-
ing high order polynomial curve, we separate the observa-
tion time of these debris into 2̧4 segments, each time
segment is close to 100 s. It may happen that there is no sig-
nal point in some period, and the range gate is small and
varies largely in different periods. The histogram pre-
processing method did not work well for this type of data.
But the zonal area is already given due to the narrow range
gate. So we use post-processing strategy and process DLR
data from Graz station with RTH algorithm directly with-
out pre-processing. For 100 Hz repetition rate DLR data
with 0.9%, 2.7%, 8% and 33% return rate, the valid echoes
are extracted successfully using our RHT algorithm as are
shown in Figs. 9–12. the good returns are identified with
almost no missing points and very low false rate.
The DLR and SLR technologies have developed rapidly
in recent years, and the SLR system is 2 kHz in Graz SLR
station (Kirchner et al., 2004, 2013). The challenge is to
extract valid returns from noise for DLR data with low
return rate down to 0.1%. The minimum return rate that
our algorithm can deal with is related to the range gate,
the length of the time segment and the measurement accu-
racy of the DLR system. If the valid returns in the time
intervals are quadratic related, according to Eq. (20), the
probability of noise points falling into area Q is
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
Z Z ae x2 þbe xþce þd 1þx2 þx4
1 T
P1 ¼ pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi dydx ð27Þ
S 0 ae x2 þbe xþce d 1þx2 þx4
This equation can be evaluated using numerical integra-
tion. Here a similar and simpler analysis is given. If the
curve that valid returns locate on is a line, the probability
of data points falling into area Q is
R T pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
P 1  2dS 0
1 þ x2 dx
 pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi T
¼ Sd x 1 þ x2 þ lnðx þ 1 þ x2 Þ 0 ð28Þ
 pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi the same range bin and time units. The total count in each
¼ Sd T 1 þ T þ lnðT þ 1 þ T Þ
2 2
According to Eqs. (21)–(23)
r 4
P ð29Þ
r þ P 1 ð1  rÞ 5
So for the linear distributed echoes, the relationship
between the return rate this algorithm can deal with and
the range gate, the length of the time segment, the measure-
ment accuracy of the DLR system is
Please cite this article in press as: Liu, T., et al. Randomized Hough transform filter for echo extraction in DLR. Adv. Space Res. (2016), http://
dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.asr.2016.07.007
r 4
 pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi  pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi P ð30Þ
r þ Sd T 1 þ T 2 þ ln T þ 1 þ T 2 ð1  rÞ 5
The value of area S is related to the range gate and the
length of the time segment. In the same time, the valid
returns should all fall into the area Q, which means
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
d 1 þ x2 ðx 2 ½0; T Þ should be bigger than measurement
accuracy of the DLR system. In order to testify whether
this algorithm is applicable for this type of data with higher
repetition rate and lower return rate, some additional noise
is added to the DLR data from Yunnan Observatory to
make the DLR data repetition rate higher and return rate
lower. The sampling DLR data is debris 25400. We first
add some noise points to make its repetition rate to be
100 Hz and return rate to be 0.18%. Then some signal
points and noise points are added to make its repetition
rate to be 1000 Hz and return rate to be 0.1%. For these
two types of data, a large amount of noise can be removed
by the preprocessing method. As can be seen in Fig. 13, all
the 72 valid returns are extracted, the number of extracted
points is 87, and more noise falls on the curve than with the
10 Hz DLR data. From Fig. 14, all the 226 good points are
identified including the valid echoes that we add. The num-
ber of extracted points is 277, with more false points.
Compared with existing SLR data analysis methods
such as Poisson filter method and CRR method introduced
by NASA in SLR2000, the RHT filter is a more automatic
data analysis method. The Poisson filter method is suitable
for autonomously extracting the valid returns that are
located on a line, but it may not work well if the valid
returns are located on a curve. And it’s hard to determine
the processing time interval autonomously to guarantee the
valid data to be linearly correlated. When processing the
DLR data from Graz station, we find that the range gate
varies largely with time, there may exist a bin that has obvi-
ously more points than predicted, but the bin in fact con-
tains only noise. What’s more, the Poisson equation
k k
P ðkÞ ¼ k k!e gives the probability when a bin has k points.
k is the expectation number of points falling into a bin. k
is determined by the total number of points in the process-
ing time interval and the total number of bins. So the total
number of bins is also to be determined, but the results
vary largely with different total bin number. The CRR
method grids the O-C plot into small cells, each cell is of
cell is compared to pre-determined threshold to determine
whether the cell contains signal or not. The performance of
this method is greatly related to the threshold and the size
of the cell. Both of them not only vary largely with satel-
lites, but also are in relation with the instantaneous perfor-
mance of the SLR system and circumstance conditions.
The SLR2000 system is controlled in real time by the soft-
ware that can combine a priori information on the satellite
link with real time sensor data. This method may not work
very well when there is no priori information of the data.
 T. Liu et al. / Advances in Space Research xxx (2016) xxx–xxx 11

Fig. 11. NORAD 37182: 8.0% return rate; residuals before and after processing.

Fig. 12. NORAD 13403: 33.0% return rate; residuals before and after processing.

For example, for space debris, there is usually less priori
information known.
Though the RHT method also has some predeter-
mined parameters, we give some mathematical relation-
ship between the already known parameters and the
parameters needed to determine. And the chosen of the
parameter value is not so strict. We can roughly estimate
these parameters before processing DLR data. Another
advantage of our method is that we do not need the curve
to be a strictly straight line, it can be sinusoidal curve or
higher order curves such as quadratic curve or cubic
curve.

Please cite this article in press as: Liu, T., et al. Randomized Hough transform filter for echo extraction in DLR. Adv. Space Res. (2016), http://
dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.asr.2016.07.007
12 T. Liu et al. / Advances in Space Research xxx (2016) xxx–xxx

Fig. 13. NORAD 25400 (modified): 100 Hz, 0.18% return rate; residuals before and after processing.

Fig. 14. NORAD 25400 (modified): 1000 Hz, 0.10% return rate; residuals before and after processing.

6. Conclusions and future work
A new algorithm for DLR valid echoes extraction was
proposed. The data points in the O-C residuals of DLR
data were thought to be pixels in the image space, and
the problem of effective echoes extraction was transformed
to curve recognition in the image space. The algorithm
combined histogram pre-processing method with the
RHT. The traditional RHT method was modified by a
new parameter update strategy, and the values of parame-

Please cite this article in press as: Liu, T., et al. Randomized Hough transform filter for echo extraction in DLR. Adv. Space Res. (2016), http://
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 T. Liu et al. / Advances in Space Research xxx (2016) xxx–xxx
ters were also analyzed. The details of the pre-processing
method and the RHT filter were presented, as well as the
flow chart of the whole algorithm.
The algorithm was tested on the DLR data with differ-
ent repetition rate measured by Yunnan Observatory and
Graz SLR station. The processing results have shown that
the algorithm performs well in signal extraction. It can
automatically extract signal points with high speed, almost
no missing points and relatively low false detection rate.
The existence of several false readings is due to the sparse
distribution of signal points around the curves and discon-
tinuity of signal points in the observation time span. How-
ever, a negligible number of false readings cannot disrupt
the normal point generation process. Moreover, we will
introduce some time correlation algorithms to reduce the
number of points false detected.
Although the algorithm is presented in the background
of the valid returns’ extraction of DLR data, the filter
can be applied to laser ranging data of both non-spinning
debris and satellite. For example, the SLR data of defunct
satellite is called DLR data. So extracting the echoes of
daylight SLR data is similar to that of DLR data with
low return rate. For spinning satellite and rotating space
debris, we are now working on the noise reduction for
SLR range residuals of fast spinning satellite Ajisai.
According to the analysis and identification results pre-
sented by Kucharski et al. (2013a,b), the signal curve is
considered as a kind of sinusoid curve.
The future works will also include the signal extraction
of daylight passes of the SLR with extremely low return
rate and improving this algorithm to make it faster and
more accurate. The influence of the extraction method on
normal point generation process or debris orbit prediction
and determination will also be analyzed.
Acknowledgement
The authors would like to gratefully acknowledge Dr.
Georg Kirchner from Space Research Institute of the Aus-
trian Academy of Sciences for providing 100 Hz DLR data
and some good suggestions. It is helpful to us. We would
like to express our gratitude to Dr. Daniel Kucharski from
Space Science Division, Korea Astronomy and Space
Science Institute for providing SLR data of satellite Ajisai,
and Dr. Yuqiang Li from Yunnan Observatory of Chinese
Academy of Sciences for providing 10 Hz DLR data. This
work was supported by China National Major Scientific
Research equipment development project (Project ID:
ZDYZ2013-2).
Please cite this article in press as: Liu, T., et al. Randomized Hough transform filter for echo extraction in DLR. Adv. Space Res. (2016), http://
dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.asr.2016.07.007
13
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