Application of Computer Vision Technology in Collaborative Control of the “Zhurong” Mars Rover

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Image and Graphics Technologies and Applications (IGTA 2023)

Abstract

The “Zhurong” Mars rover successfully landed on the surface of Mars on May 22, 2021, and began its inspection and exploration. Currently, it has traveled 1921 m and achieved a series of important scientific discoveries. Due to objective difficulties such as harsh terrain conditions, insufficient energy, and limited communication, the “Zhurong” Mars rover adopts a collaborative control mode of “semi intelligent on board autonomous + ground teleoperation”. Computer vision technology is the key core technology supporting the collaborative control of the rover. In the enter descent landing stage and Mars surface roving, computer vision technology has broken through key technologies, such as rapid localization of the lander, terrain analysis of landing areas, three-dimensional terrain reconstruction, terrain classification, navigation and positioning, path planning, and simulation verification, solved the problem of long-term efficient mobile technology of the rover, and significantly expanded the detection range of the Mars rover, robustly guaranteeing the efficient and stable inspection and long-term survival of the Mars rover. This paper elaborates on the aforementioned technologies and their special on-orbit applications.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant No. 41771488).

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Correspondence to Guolin Hu or Ziqing Cheng .

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Wang, J. et al. (2023). Application of Computer Vision Technology in Collaborative Control of the “Zhurong” Mars Rover. In: Yongtian, W., Lifang, W. (eds) Image and Graphics Technologies and Applications. IGTA 2023. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 1910. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-7549-5_31

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-7549-5_31

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