Event Camera Datasets for Lunar Descent and Proximity Operations Trajectories

Event-based cameras offer potential advantages over conventional digital cameras as sensors for a variety of applications. One of the challenges for researchers exploring the use of event cameras as navigation sensors for space environments is collecting high quality datasets due to the cost of access to space. To help address this, we have collected multiple datasets using an event-based camera mounted to a six degree-of-freedom robot over simulated lunar terrain and a scaled docking tunnel model. This paper describes these datasets and details their release into the public domain to enable other researcher teams to develop and test new navigation algorithms.