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Journal of University of Chinese Academy of Sciences ›› 2024, Vol. 41 ›› Issue (1): 81-87.DOI: 10.7523/j.ucas.2022.048

• Research Articles • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Calculation method of geometric parameters for decision support of “Zhurong” Mars rover leaving the landing platform

LI Hao1,2, MA Youqing1, ZHANG Shuo1, LIU Shaochuang1   

  1. 1. Aerospace Information Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China;
    2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
  • Received:2022-02-18 Revised:2022-04-29 Online:2024-01-15

Abstract: The departure of Zhurong Mars rover from the landing platform is the first key action performed after the Tianwen-1 detector system landing on Mars, and it is the basis for subsequent inspections of the Martian surface. In order to provide decision support for the safe departure of the rover, a method for calculating the angle between planes based on the three-dimensional image of the navigation camera is proposed to calculate the angle between the two departure orbit planes and the departure angle (the angle between the departure orbits and the surface of Mars). The process of decision support for Mars rover departure based on the navigation camera images is described. First, the forward intersection algorithm was used to obtain the coordinates of the point cloud on the surface of Mars and the coordinates of the departure orbits feature points. Then a plane fitting method combining the random sample consensus (RANSAC) algorithm and the total least squares method was used to fit the departure orbit plane and the surface of Mars, and the rationality and robustness of the method was verified through simulation experiments. At the end, the angle between the departure orbit planes (0.203°) and two departure angle (-18.947°, -19.154°) were calculated and used in the decision of Zhurong rover departure. On May 22, 2021, the Zhurong Mars rover successfully departed from the landing platform and set foot on the surface of Mars.

Key words: Mars rover, rover-platform separation, stereo measurement, plane fitting

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