Visual traversability analysis for micro planetary rover

Traversability analysis is a significant and challenging problem for planetary rover´s navigation and safeguard on rocky and bumpy terrain. Moreover, the growing requirement for the micro rover in future planetary missions demands robust traversability analysis upon limited sensors and field of perception. In this paper, a framework for stereo based terrain mapping and traversability analysis in autonomous navigation is developed for the micro planetary rover. In this work, a joint reliability based disparity expansion (JRDE) algorithm is proposed to obtain accurate 3D information of the local terrain. Focusing on the low complexity and robust performance, we report a hierachical digital elevation map (DEM) based method to achieve the traversability map with relative index value, which consists of elevation thresholding and estimation of slope and roughness. Path planning is subsequently fulfilled upon the traversability map. This method is validated with a set of planet-surface like scenes, while complete onboard system has also been proved fast and effective in artificial rocky environment.