TOPOGRAPHIC MAPPING WITH MANIPULATOR ARM CAMERA IN LUNAR SAMPLE RETURN MISSION

Abstract. The topographic mapping of sampling areas, providing basic sampling environment information, is crucial in sample return mission. The fixed monitoring cameras were designed for mapping of sampling areas in fixed effective resolution. In order to perform more detailed topographic analysis of sampling areas, this paper proposed a topographic mapping method based on the sequential sample images captured with the movements of manipulator arm. The tie point matching results and the image exterior orientation parameters obtained from measurements of manipulator arm joints were employed to the weighted bundle adjustment based optimization for the accurate topographic mapping. The simulated images were adopted to validate the effectiveness and accuracy of the proposed method.