10 th ESA Workshop on Advanced Space Technologies for Robotics and Automation 'ASTRA 2008' 11-13 November 2008 at ESTEC, Noordwijk, the Netherlands REALISTIC IMAGE GENERATION FOR TESTING VISION-BASED AUTONOMOUS RENDEZVOUS

摘要

This paper describes the development of a tool for generating realistic synthetic images of planetary rovers and planet surfaces for the purpose of testing vision-based au tonomy algorithms. Such algorithms have been used on the NASA Mars rovers and will be used heavily on ExoMars for navigation. Computer simulation is a useful comple ment to testing in artificial physical test beds and natura l terrestrial analogue environments, as it offers a dvantages of flexibility, availability, repeatability, speed and low cost. C omputer generated images may also be useful in other areas such as operator training tools, supporting mission operati ons, and public engagement. The aim of this work is to create a generic, reusable visualisation tool, not tightly c oupled to any single rover design or simulation env ironment, which can generate images in close to real time. This will en able researchers to perform testing in a more reali stic environment than would otherwise be practical, without the need to develop their own image generation software. Th e work is an extension of the Planet and Asteroid Natural Scene Generation Utility (PANGU) developed by the University of Dundee.