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Vision guided landing of an an autonomous helicopter in hazardous terrainFuture robotic space missions will employ a precision soft-landing capability that will enable exploration of previously inaccessible sites that have strong scientific significance. To enable this capability, a fully autonomous onboard system that identifies and avoids hazardous features such as steep slopes and large rocks is required. Such a system will also provide greater functionality in unstructured terrain to unmanned aerial vehicles. This paper describes an algorithm for landing hazard avoidance based on images from a single moving camera. The core of the algorithm is an efficient application of structure from motion to generate a dense elevation map of the landing area. Hazards are then detected in this map and a safe landing site is selected. The algorithm has been implemented on an autonomous helicopter testbed and demonstrated four times resulting in the first autonomous landing of an unmanned helicopter in unknown and hazardous terrain.
Document ID
20060044168
Acquisition Source
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Document Type
Conference Paper
External Source(s)
Authors
Johnson, Andrew E.
Montgomery, Jim
Date Acquired
August 23, 2013
Publication Date
April 18, 2005
Subject Category
Cybernetics, Artificial Intelligence And Robotics
Meeting Information
Meeting: International Conference on Robotics and Automation
Location: Barcelona
Country: Spain
Start Date: April 18, 2005
End Date: April 22, 2005
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other
Keywords
Mars Landing
structure from motion
Mars Exploration Rover (MER)
hazard detection
velocity estimation
feature tracking
autonomous landing
UAV

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