Feature Density Based Terrain Hazard Detection for Planetary Landing

Ai Gao*, Shibo Zhou

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

To ensure successful future planetary landing mission, the lander must be capable of detecting and assessing terrain hazard in the nominal landing zone. This paper presents an innovative method of planetary terrain hazard detection. The concept of feature density is introduced into the process of terrain hazard detection. Moreover, the statistical information of the terrain feature density is utilized to represent the terrain hazard level. Opposed to other methods of hazard detection, the research in this paper focuses on how to build a unified terrain representation by the terrain features rather than detecting the specific one or several types of hazard obstacles in traditional sense. Computer simulations demonstrates that the method presented in this paper is able to conduct multitype of complex terrain hazard detecting by the terrain feature detected in the visual image obtained from onboard camera during the landing phase.

Original languageEnglish
Article number8322246
Pages (from-to)2411-2420
Number of pages10
JournalIEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems
Volume54
Issue number5
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Oct 2018

Keywords

  • Feature density
  • hazard detection
  • planetary landing
  • terrain representation

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Gao, A., & Zhou, S. (2018). Feature Density Based Terrain Hazard Detection for Planetary Landing. IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems, 54(5), 2411-2420. Article 8322246. https://doi.org/10.1109/TAES.2018.2818578