Highly accurate real-time localization is of fundamental importance for the safety and efficiency of planetary rovers exploring the surface of Mars. Mars rover operations rely on vision-based systems to avoid hazards as well as plan safe routes. However, vision-based systems operate on the assumption that sufficient visual texture is visible in the scene. This poses a challenge for vision-based navigation on Mars where regions lacking visual texture are prevalent. To overcome this, we make use of the ability of the rover to actively steer the visual sensor to improve fault tolerance and maximize the perception performance. This paper answers the question of where and when to look by presenting a method for predicting the sensor trajectory that maximizes the localization performance of the rover. This is accomplished by an online assessment of possible trajectories using synthetic, future camera views created from previous observations of the scene. The proposed trajectories are quantified and chosen based on the expected localization performance. In this work, we validate the proposed method in field experiments at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) Mars Yard. Furthermore, multiple performance metrics are identified and evaluated for reducing the overall runtime of the algorithm. We show how actively steering the perception system increases the localization accuracy compared to traditional fixed-sensor configurations.

中文翻译：

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行星探测车的感知感知自主桅杆运动规划

高度准确的实时定位对于行星探测器探索火星表面的安全性和效率至关重要。火星探测器的操作依靠基于视觉的系统来避免危险并规划安全路线。然而，基于视觉的系统基于场景中可见足够的视觉纹理的假设运行。这对火星上基于视觉的导航提出了挑战，因为缺乏视觉纹理的区域普遍存在。为了克服这个问题，我们利用漫游车主动引导视觉传感器的能力来提高容错能力并最大限度地提高感知性能。本文通过提出一种预测传感器轨迹的方法来回答何时何地观察的问题，该方法可以最大限度地提高漫游车的定位性能。这是通过使用根据先前对场景的观察创建的合成未来相机视图对可能轨迹进行在线评估来实现的。根据预期的定位性能对建议的轨迹进行量化和选择。在这项工作中，我们在喷气推进实验室 (JPL) 火星场的现场实验中验证了所提出的方法。此外，识别和评估多个性能指标以减少算法的整体运行时间。我们展示了与传统的固定传感器配置相比，主动转向感知系统如何提高定位精度。我们在喷气推进实验室 (JPL) 火星场的现场实验中验证了所提出的方法。此外，识别和评估多个性能指标以减少算法的整体运行时间。我们展示了与传统的固定传感器配置相比，主动转向感知系统如何提高定位精度。我们在喷气推进实验室 (JPL) 火星场的现场实验中验证了所提出的方法。此外，识别和评估多个性能指标以减少算法的整体运行时间。我们展示了与传统的固定传感器配置相比，主动转向感知系统如何提高定位精度。