Digital Simulation of Lunar Terrain Environment and Rover Camera Image for Chang'e-3 Mission

摘要

From the beginning of Chang'e-3 Mission Lunar Lander impetus descent stage, visual navigation will be one of the key constituent elements of Chang'e-3 Mission. Especially,to implement patrolling and investigation task on lunar surface, timely and accurate camera images acquisition, visual navigation and environmental construction will be the prerequisite of the mission planning during the lunar rover teleoperation process. To train and evaluate the skills of the ground operation group and verify the validity of the ground system processing, Chang'e-3 Mission Explorer Digital Simulation System(CMEDSS) is developed to provide the simulation data source for the mission drilling of the ground control center. Distinguished from the digital simulator of ordinary flight missions, CMEDSS is required to realize the simulation of lunar topography and the rover camera imagination. Firstly, the architecture of CMEDSS is presented. Then, the approaches of the lunar terrain environment construction, the rover kinematics simulation, and the camera imagination mapping are discussed. Finally, the application of the simulation system CMEDSS during Chang'e-3 Mission preparation is presented.