High-precision navigation and positioning of celestial exploration rover based on depth camera

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to verify the correctness and feasibility of simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) algorithm based on red-green-blue depth (RGB-D) camera in high precision navigation and localization of celestial exploration rover. Design/methodology/approach First, a positioning algorithm based on depth camera is proposed. Second, the realization method is described from the five aspects of feature detection method, feature point matching, point cloud mapping, motion estimation and high precision optimization. Feature detection: taking the precision, real-time and motion basics as the comprehensive consideration, the ORB (oriented FAST and rotated BRIEF) features extraction method is adopted; feature point matching: solves the similarity measure of the feature descriptor vector and how to remove the mismatch point; point cloud mapping: the two-dimensional information on RGB and the depth information on D corresponding; motion estimation: the iterative closest point algorithm is used to solve point set registration; and high precision optimization: optimized by using the graph optimization method. Findings The proposed high-precision SLAM algorithm is very effective for solving high precision navigation and positioning of celestial exploration rover. Research limitations/implications In this paper, the simulation validation is based on an open source data set for testing; the physical verification is based on the existing unmanned vehicle platform to simulate the celestial exploration rover. Practical implications This paper presents a RGB-D camera-based navigation algorithm, which can be obtained by simulation experiment and physical verification. The real-time and accuracy of the algorithm are well behaved and have strong applicability, which can support the tests and experiments on hardware platform and have a better environmental adaptability. Originality/value The proposed SLAM algorithm can deal with the high precision navigation and positioning of celestial exploration rover effectively. Taking into account the current wide application prospect of computer vision, the method in this paper can provide a study foundation for the deep space probe.