OSU Large Interdisciplinary Grant

A New Laboratory of Spatial and Planetary Sensor Networks

PI:          Dr. Rongxing Li, CEEGS, The Ohio State University
Co-PIs: Dr. Hakan Ferhatosmanoglu, CSE, The Ohio State University
              Dr. Kaichang Di, CEEGS, The Ohio State University

Collaborating Institutions/Organizations:
              Optical Information Systems, German Space Center (DLR)
              Machine Vision Group, JPL/NASA
              Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colorado
              Dept. of Civil and Environmental Eng., Lehigh University
              Dept. of Mechanical Eng., Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Timeline October 2004 - September 2007

Project Overview

A new Laboratory of Spatial and Planetary Sensor Networks will be established at The Ohio State University as a center of excellence in development of sensor networks, sensor data processing, and applications in engineering sensing and planetary explorations. The Laboratory should be a platform for attracting large interdisciplinary research grants from external funding agencies.

Based on our current success of funded research in sensor technology by NASA (Mars, $1.7M) and NSF (Spatial sensing, $1.2M) in last 5 years, the following two interdisciplinary projects have been proposed under the new infrastructure of the Laboratory of Spatial and Planetary Sensor Networks:

1) NASA payload/instrument proposal “MPS (Mars Panoramic Scanner) for MSL (Mars Science Laboratory) 2009 and/or future Missions”, external proposal budget: $15 million for 8 years, and

2) NSF proposal “A Smart Sensor Network for Intelligent Structural Analysis in Earthquake Engineering”, external proposal budget: $3 million for 5 years.

Dr. Ron Li (PI) is a Participating Scientist of the current MER (Mars Exploration Rover) 2003 Mission. He is a member of the NASA Mars Geodesy and Cartography Working Group and a collaborator of the Mars Express Mission’s HRSC (High Resolution Stereo Camera) Photogrammetric and Cartographic Processing Working Group. Dr. Li was recently awarded a NASA Mars Technology project for long range autonomous rover localization for MSL 2009 mission and beyond. He was a member of several NSF grant review panels of Engineering Directorate and Computer Science and Information Directorate. Dr. Li has been working with Dr. Ferhatosmanoglu of CIS/OSU in data compression and spatial sensors. They closely worked together to develop the NASA and NSF proposals at both conceptual level and detailed deign level. OSU, JPL, Washington University in St. Louis, and Space Science Institute have been closely working together on the MER 2003 mission and mapping method development. OSU and German Space Center (DLR) collaborated in processing the earlier HRSC imaging data. OSU, Lehigh University and Worcester Polytechnic Institute teams have been working together to design the Intelligent Sensor Network for Earth Quake Engineering. The PI and Co-Is’ working relationships are active and healthy. They form a critical mass for building this interdisciplinary laboratory and for the two NASA and NSF proposals to be submitted.

The OSU large interdisciplinary grant will be used to prepare the two NASA and NSF proposals totaling $18M and to conduct primary investigations that are necessary for submission of the proposals.

We expect that both proposals will be awarded at their first or later submissions, particularly the Mars mission payload instrument one.

MPS Concept

The MPS is an innovative imaging system which is capable of providing high-quality multi-spectral stereo panoramas to support the scientific investigations in future Mars landed rover missions as well as in Earth applications.
The MPS uses linear array cameras as the imaging device and applies an off-axis rotation mechanics. It has the following advantages:

1) MPS produces a smooth panorama that overcomes the gaps and seams. In addition, it maintains homogeneous
brightness and contrast throughout the entire panorama.

2) The data redundancy as well as the additional rover operation time can be saved for other science explorations.

3) The linear CCD arrays take their panoramas of multiple bands simultaneously. Thus, MPS will greatly reduce
the time for multi-spectral imaging.

4) The stereo vision capability and efficiency can be improved with the features of the stereo panoramas acquired from
MPS’s specific layout of the stereo cameras.

Development Summary

We have built a prototype of the MPS that uses a color linear array camera with RGB channels. In addition, we have developed software to integrate the control of all the hardware components. A future version of the system will include multi-spectral channels such as VNIR (visible-to-near-infrared) and SWIR (short wavelength infrared).

This system, able to run on a 12V storage battery, can be operated outdoors. To date, we have made several field tests to test the whole system, including both hardware and software. The following two panoramas were acquired in two of these field tests.

Panorama taken from the roof of Bolz Hall at The Ohio State University

Panorama taken in the desert near Reno, Nevada

Publications

Li, R., Y. Lin, K. Di, and B. Wu 2008. A New Ground-based Stereo Panoramic Scanning System. The XXI Congress of the International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, Beijing, China, July 1-11, 2008, 5 p.

For more information, contact Dr. Rongxing Li, li.282@osu.edu