Ingenuity's Trajectory

[Francois LE COAT]

Hi,

It's possible to reconstruct visible relief, and trajectory from the
Ingenuity drone, using a simple video sequence. The monocular disparity
is obtained by matching images with a reference, measuring optical-
flow. The trajectory is obtained using parameters of the perspective
transformation describing successive images...

<https://hebergement.universite-paris-saclay.fr/lecoat/demoweb/trajectory.html>

Since April 19, 2021, the Ingenuity helicopter sent to Mars hasn't
stopped flying over the planet. It was expected taking off only
5 times, to demonstrate that it was possible. In fact, we are in
February 2022, and a final realization of 19th flight over Mars, was
attempted. The measurements we take correspond to the 18th flight
over planet Mars, dated 15 December 2021.

The localization of the piloting assistance camera which is obtained,
is not perfect. The lens of this camera has a radial distortion, what
is not taken into account by the perspective kinematics model.

Best regards,

--
Dr. François LE COAT
CNRS - Paris - France
<https://hebergement.universite-paris-saclay.fr/lecoat>

[Francois LE COAT]

Hi,

Francois LE COAT writes:
> It's possible to reconstruct visible relief, and trajectory from the
> Ingenuity drone, using a simple video sequence. The monocular disparity
> is obtained by matching images with a reference, measuring optical-
> flow. The trajectory is obtained using parameters of the perspective
> transformation describing successive images...
>
> <https://hebergement.universite-paris-saclay.fr/lecoat/demoweb/trajectory.html>
>
>
> Since April 19, 2021, the Ingenuity helicopter sent to Mars hasn't
> stopped flying over the planet. It was expected taking off only
> 5 times, to demonstrate that it was possible. In fact, we are in
> February 2022, and a final realization of 19th flight over Mars, was
> attempted. The measurements we take correspond to the 18th flight
> over planet Mars, dated 15 December 2021.
>
> The localization of the piloting assistance camera which is obtained,
> is not perfect. The lens of this camera has a radial distortion, what
> is not taken into account by the perspective kinematics model.

We are in August 2023, and the Ingenuity helicopter still flies over
Mars. There's no GPS satellite system on the planet, and a very little
atmosphere compared to Earth, but it is localizing itself with a
grey-scale camera that points to the ground, and it works like that...

Here is a video <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TP_ojUa6XtU>

The image processing computations are obtained from interpolation
performed at <https://twitter.com/stim3on/status/1419414689998594051>
by Simeon Schmauß. That's because video are too sparse when it is
transmitted down the JPL/NASA Laboratory at Caltech University...

[Francois LE COAT]

Ingenuity made its 55th flight on August 12, 2023, what demonstrates the
robustness of the control GNU/Linux system, including in particularly
hostile conditions, an unknown environment and minimal supervision,
because the helicopter is almost autonomous, very very far from
everything somewhere in space.

[Francois LE COAT]

*Ingenuity over planet Mars*
In Mastodon by Simeon Schmauß at 2023/10/07
#Ingenuity #Perseverance #Mars2020 #Mars #NASA #Solarocks

<https://www.youtube.com/shorts/gV0iPwSCFBY>

Here is a look back at Ingenuity's 59th flight on Mars, as captured by
the Mastcam-Z on the Perseverance Rover.

In this view, I've heavily enhanced the dust blown away during takeoff.
You can also see dust devils moving in the background!