Re: Stereo in space

[P3D John W Roberts <roberts@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>Date: Wed, 4 Dec 1996 14:14:16 -0600
>From: "P3D Gregory J. Wageman" <gjw@xxxxxxxxxx>
>Subject: Re: Stereo in space

>John R. writes;

>>The Mars Pathfinder mission that they're trying to launch again tonight
>>(Tuesday night) incorporates stereo imaging in the lander part, or in the
>>rover, or in both (I haven't had time to find the Web page yet.) The rover
>>uses a laser scanning system to detect obstacles, so I'm not sure whether it
>>has an imager as well.

>We watched that launch "live" on NASA TV courtesy of our local cable
>company.  The Web page is at URL http://mpfwww.jpl.nasa.gov/  Here's
>a relevent excerpt about the Imager for Mars Pathfinder (IMP):
>...

Thanks for finding the data. I think it's also interesting that the rover is
intended to be a test of *autonomous* navigation - a human operator sends
general location objectives once per "sol" (Mars day), and it's up to the
rover to figure out how to get to the target location. While I haven't seen
it in so many words, I gather that the rover finds obstacles, interesting
target rocks, etc., by use of its stereo imagers plus the laser scanner.
(In other words, it apparently moves the laser beam around, and looks at the
apparent position of the dot in the two cameras, in order to reconstruct a
3D model of its surroundings. We discussed the similar topic of photographs
lit by a laser pointer just a few weeks ago.)

By using a laser scanner, the rover doesn't have to detect edges, recognize
Aunt Tilly, etc. :-)

John R


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