Range determination algorithm performed on mars exploration rover stereo images

The electrical engineering students at Penn State Harrisburg have an ample opportunity to pursue interests in electrical and electronic circuits, including digital circuits and VLSI and its fabrication, microprocessors and their applications, electromagnetics, communications, control systems, digital signal/image processing and computer vision. They also have opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge through hands-on course projects and laboratory experiences, in the above fields. In this paper, an example of an image processing application project is developed, in the context of an image-processing course. This paper presents an algorithm that uses stereo images, obtained from two cameras mounted on the Mars Exploration Rovers, to determine the range of distant objects in the images by using correlation and triangulation. The initial value obtained by the algorithm was not accurate because it did not take into account the fact that the range of an object beyond the camera's focal point is non-linear in appearance, and to the non-linearity of the camera lens, thus the range obtained was subjected to correction to compensate for these two factors. The results obtained by the algorithm are comparable to those obtained by NASA.