SIGNN++: Robust Graph Neural Star Identification on Earth

Overview & Synopsis

We present SIGNN++, a learning-based star identification (SID) framework for celestial navigation in GNSS-denied nighttime environments. Although researchers have developed learning-based SID methods to improve robustness to observation noise, prior evaluations have focused mainly on synthetic or non-terrestrial environments, leaving their reliability under real terrestrial conditions unclear. To address these limitations, SIGNN++ extends SIGNN, a graph neural network-based SID method, with three components: a more realistic noise model for training data, Fourier Transform (FT) of angular-distance edge features, and RANSAC-based Perspective Star Alignment for identification and attitude refinement. The results show that SIGNN++ is more robust to terrestrial observation disturbances and achieves higher star identification accuracy and solved rates than the original SIGNN and publicly available SID baselines, while maintaining comparable attitude accuracy and practical computation time for continuous operation. The implementation code of SIGNN++ and datasets will be available at https://signnpp.github.io/signnpp/.