Low computation vision-based navigation for a Martian rover

摘要

In the design and construction of mobile robots vision has always been one of the most potentially useful sensory systems. In practice however, it has also become the most difficult to successfully implement. At the MIT Mobile Robotics (Mobot) Lab we have designed a small, light, cheap, and low power Mobot Vision System that can be used to guide a mobile robot in a constrained environment. The target environment is the surface of Mars, although we believe the system should be applicable to other conditions as well. It is our belief that the constraints of the Martian environment will allow the implementation of a system that provides vision based guidance to a small mobile rover.