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Self-Calibration of the Descent Camera of the Tianwen-1 Probe

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Abstract

Tianwen-1 probe is equipped with the descent camera. Descent images are very special and characteristic. Many image processing missions can be done when parameters of descent camera are known. Therefore, the self-calibration method for descent camera based on the structure from motion (SfM) is proposed. The relative orientation model of the oblique and the vertical baselines is proposed in order to provide the accurate initial value. Simulated experiment of the unmanned aerial vehicle in the desert environment verifies that the proposed method has high positioning accuracy and the stability. Finally, the proposed method is practical used for Tianwen-1 mission. The average value of the root-mean-square error of the in-orbit checking points is 0.875 m.

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Acknowledgements

Thanks to the cooperation and support of Zhurong Rover’s development team.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Aerospace Information Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100094, China

    Shuo Zhang, Youqing Ma, Shaochuang Liu, Wanrong Xie & Yongzhe Yan

  2. Beijing Institute of Spacecraft System Engineering, Beijing, 100094, China

    Jianli Zhang, Song Peng, Bo Wen & Yang Jia

  3. School of Geodesy and Geomatics, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430079, China

    Chen Qi

Authors
  1. Shuo Zhang
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  2. Jianli Zhang
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  3. Song Peng
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  4. Bo Wen
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  5. Youqing Ma
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  6. Yang Jia
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  7. Shaochuang Liu
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  8. Chen Qi
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  9. Wanrong Xie
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  10. Yongzhe Yan
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Contributions

Conceptualization: SL, YJ. Methodology: SZ; resources: YJ, JZ, BW, SP. Experiment and data analysis: CQ, YW, YM, HL, YY. Funding acquisition: YJ, SL, SZ, YM. Writing-original draft preparation: SZ. Writing-review and editing: SL, YJ.

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Correspondence to Shaochuang Liu.

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Zhang, S., Zhang, J., Peng, S. et al. Self-Calibration of the Descent Camera of the Tianwen-1 Probe. SN COMPUT. SCI. 3, 480 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42979-022-01369-6

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