Abstract
For future lunar exploration and planetary missions, the digital elevation model (DEM) of the target object may not be well prepared before the mission, so developing a new robust crater detection algorithm (CDA) without prepared high-precision DEM is needed to meet the requirements of a high-reliability and high-precision detection and navigation system. In this paper, we presented a new robust lunar CDA method based on maximum entropy threshold segmentation. By calculating the entropy distribution of the ternary image, the threshold for retaining the maximum amount of image information is selected adaptively, a variety of evaluation indicators are proposed, and a multiple-indicator constraint matrix is constructed to realize the extraction and fitting of the craters. The proposed method has the following advantages: (1) it has strong robustness and is capable of extracting complete craters under multiple illumination conditions, which makes it suitable for the extraction of large-scale planetary and lunar images; (2) the extracted crater edges are clear and complete and do not merge with the surrounding environment edge; and (3) it avoids the problem of parameter sensitivity that is present in a traditional CDA algorithm. The proposed method was verified using an image taken by the Chang’e-2 lunar probe, and a comparison with the traditional method based on morphology and adaptive Canny edge detection shows that the number of craters detected increases by more than 35%, while the computational efficiency is improved by more than 40%.
Highlights
Planetary landing exploration is a key approach to study the formation and evolution of the solar system, the development and utilization of space resources, asteroid impact defense, and other major scientific issues
We can infer from the results that the crater detection algorithm based on Canny has the following two disadvantages due to the parameter sensitivity: (i) the edges detected by Canny usually connect with surrounding edges, as shown in Figure 2(b); (ii) it is hard to choose an appropriate dualthreshold autonomously under different light conditions, which cannot meet the demand of a lunar exploration mission
The second experiment verifies that compared with the traditional method, the proposed crater detection algorithm (CDA) can detect more craters and has lower computational efficiency
Summary
Planetary landing exploration is a key approach to study the formation and evolution of the solar system, the development and utilization of space resources, asteroid impact defense, and other major scientific issues. Terrain with high scientific value is more complex, and landing is more difficult; crater detection algorithms are important for lunar exploration and planetary missions. Texture analysis cannot be adjusted to a variety of lighting conditions These methods have problems with robustness or speed; CDA based on image or optical information still have research value.
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