Evaluating geometric primitives for crater-based pose estimation

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dc.contributor.authorMcLeod, S.
dc.contributor.authorChng, C.-K.
dc.contributor.authorChin, T.-J.
dc.date.issued2026
dc.descriptionAvailable online 16 April 2025
dc.description.abstractCrater-based pose estimation (CBPE) is an integral component of crater-based navigation (CBN) pipelines for cislunar, asteroid and planetary missions. CBPE aims to estimate the position and attitude of a spacecraft using observed craters and their correspondences in a catalogue of known craters. There are typically two paradigms in CBPE: point-based and ellipse-based methods. To the best of our knowledge, there has never been a comprehensive evaluation of these two geometric primitives for CBPE. While a recent study suggests ellipse-based methods are superior, we argue that the study is inconclusive due to the research gaps in pointbased methods. Existing point-based methods make one of two strong assumptions, i.e., the camera has to be nadir-pointing, or, the observed terrain has to be smooth. However, these assumptions do not hold in general CBN scenarios. To this end, we propose a new point-based method, dual perspective-n-point (PnP), that generalises to these scenarios. We demonstrate dual PnP’s strengths over existing point-based methods in two newly collected datasets. Furthermore, our findings provide strong evidence indicating the superiority of using ellipse-based geometric primitives over point-based geometric primitives for CBPE. This paper evaluates the two geometric primitives for CBPE, contributing to one of the most comprehensive analyses of CBPE methods to date.
dc.description.statementofresponsibilitySofia McLeod, Chee-Kheng Chng, Tat-Jun Chin
dc.identifier.citationActa Astronautica, 2026; 238(A):1311-1325
dc.identifier.doi10.1016/j.actaastro.2025.04.014
dc.identifier.issn0094-5765
dc.identifier.issn1879-2030
dc.identifier.orcidMcLeod, S. [0000-0003-0822-3236]
dc.identifier.orcidChng, C.-K. [0000-0002-8382-363X]
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/2440/147897
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherElsevier
dc.relation.grantARC
dc.rights© 2025 IAA. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights are reserved, including those for text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies.
dc.source.urihttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.actaastro.2025.04.014
dc.subjectCrater-based pose estimation; Crater-based navigation; Terrain absolute navigation
dc.titleEvaluating geometric primitives for crater-based pose estimation
dc.typeJournal article
pubs.publication-statusPublished

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