Elevation-map based regional hazard detection for planetary landing

Future planetary exploration missions will aim at landing a spacecraft in hazardous or unknown regions of a distant planet, thereby requiring an ability to autonomously detect and avoid surface hazards and land at an affirmed safe site. Descent stage is typically subdivided into several stages to detect different hazards of varying styles and sizes. This paper focuses on those large surface features that could be detected at a high altitude and we present an elevation-map based regional hazard detection algorithm using image segmentation techniques. The algorithm is tested using Martian elevation maps and testing results show that the proposed algorithm is effective at detecting typical regional hazards such as craters, ravines and ridges, and reliable in selecting a safe and cheap landing window.