Li, an associate professor in civil and environmental engineering and geodetic science, is conducting research supported by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, on rover localization for Mars exploration. NASA’s previous Mars rover had only sensors mounted on it for navigation. Li's objective is to significantly enhance the Mars rover localization accuracy.

"Scientists will be able to better navigate the rover to where it will collect samples and return it to the Mars lander to store the samples," Li said.

In conjunction with JPL researchers, Li proposes using the images that will be taken by a camera during the lander's descending process to create a terrain map database of the landing site. Terrain information will be used to navigate the rover.

As more images are taken, they will be integrated with the descent images to form a stronger image network. This incremental image network will greatly improve the rover localization accuracy for crater impact analysis, rock sampling and retrieving, and ultimately manned exploration.

Researchers from OSU, JPL and J&P Surveying, Inc., conducted field tests in the Mojave Desert at Silver Lake, California, that simulated the landing processing and rover operations.

Using data collected from previous field tests at Silver Lake, the team found that the rover localization capability would meet NASA’s design requirement of location error within one meter for rover position of one kilometer from the lander.

"This technology will support NASA’s Mars missions planned for 2003 and 2005," Li said.