Landing location planning based on genetic cooperative particle swarm optimization

Being able to safely land on the surface is one of the primary challenges when a probe exploring an asteroid. In order to ensure landing safety, the landing location planning needs to comprehensively consider the terrain characteristics and avoid obstacles such as protruding rocks, craters and slopes. Relatively flat areas are suitable for landing. If multiple landers are landing together, in order to avoid collisions and maintain good communication, appropriate distance should be maintained between the landers. In this paper, we first establish a landing environment model, and then propose a landing location planning method for a lander-group using genetic cooperative particle swarm optimization (GCPSO), which ensures the autonomous movement of individual landers while maintaining a certain safe landing distance between them. Taking a group of three landers as an example, simulation experiments show that the algorithm proposed in this paper can ensure the group to achieve stable landing and keep safe distances between them.