Autonomous navigation method with celestial and velocity joint observation for lunar rover

It is essential for lunar rover to know its position in order to fulfill the lunar exploration mission. Therefore, the autonomous navigation and control method of lunar rover have become an important topic. In this paper, a new autonomous navigation method for lunar rover based on velocity and celestial joint observation is described. The principle of this method was introduced, and the system equation for lunar rover based on the theory of inertial navigation is developed. Then the joint observation model based on celestial and velocity is presented. Because of the system equation and observation model are linear, Kalman filter is used to implement optimization estimation in this method. Finally, the simulation of this method was finished. The simulation results demonstrated the validity and feasibility of this method.