SURFACE IMAGERY BASED MAPPING AND ROVER LOCALIZATION FOR THE 2003 MARS EXPLORATION ROVER MISSION

This paper presents the technology of mapping and rover localization at the two landing sites, Gusev and Meridiani, for the 2003 Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission. The rover localization and landing site mapping technology is based on the incremental bundle adjustment of an image network formed by Pancam, and Navcam stereo images. The developed incremental bundle adjustment model supplies improved rover locations and image orientation parameters, which are critical for the generation of high quality landing site topographic mapping products. The rover localization results demonstrate that the bundle adjustment technology is able to correct position errors caused by wheel slippages, azimuthal angle drift and other navigation errors as large as 21%. The mapping products, which are generated at each stop of the rovers, include digital terrain models, orthophotos, and rover traverse maps. These maps and localization information were provided to MER mission scientists and engineers through a Web GIS.