Autonomous image-plane robot control for Martian lander operations

This paper describes the use of an image-plane robot control method known as camera space manipulation for remote planetary surface operations using a three degree-of-freedom arm mounted on a lander base. Because of incompatibilities that may exist in the image-plane target objectives that are required for the camera space manipulation method the final positioning precision of the arm relative to a point in 3D space is investigated. The experimental system developed required only minimal modifications to the existing Martian lander facility and the system achieved positioning precision on the order of 5 mm or less. Autonomous operation of the system was successfully demonstrated for task such as autonomous sample acquisition