Motion estimation from laser ranging for autonomous comet landing

This paper describes an algorithm for translational motion estimation near a comet a surface using scanning laser rangefinder data. Our technique is based on terrain map generation from rangefinder data followed by terrain map alignment. The output of our algorithm is estimates of rigid translational motion and motion covariance between scans. Our algorithms have been tested using data acquired with a scanning laser rangefinder designed for comet landing, and results indicated motion estimation accuracies of 0.5 m over 70 m of motion with a processing rate of 4.4 Hz on 10000 sample range scans.