Abstract/Summary

This paper presents a unique approach for panoramic mosaics based on Moon surface images from the Chang’E-3 (CE-3) mission, with consideration of the exposure time and external illumination changes in CE-3 Panoramic Camera (PCAM) imaging. The engineering implementation involves algorithms of image feature points extraction by using Speed-Up Robust Features (SURF), and a newly defined measure is used to obtain the corresponding points in feature matching. Then, the transformation matrix is calculated and optimized between adjacent images by the Levenberg–Marquardt algorithm. Finally, an image is reconstructed by using a fade-in-fade-out method based on linear interpolation to achieve a seamless mosaic. The developed algorithm has been tested with CE-3 PCAM images at Point A (one of the rover sites where the rover is separated from the lander). This approach has produced accurate mosaics from CE-3 PCAM images, as is indicated by the value of the Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR), which is greater than 31 dB between the overlapped region of the images before and after fusion.