An Automatic Meter Recognition Method for In-Orbit Application

With the development of machine vision technology, more and more vision-based recognition methods have appeared. However, the artificial meter readings are still widespread in the astronautic application. Astronauts’ works are complex, and the meter readings reduce their efficiencies. To solve this problem, in this paper, we propose a method that can automatically recognize the meter readings. The automatic recognition method includes the following three major components: (1) the digit extraction, (2) the digit segmentation, and (3) the digit recognition. The experiment results show that the digits of the meter can be successfully recognized. The automatic readings can reduce astronauts’ works and make them more convenient while working. This new automatic recognition system has great promise for the practical application.