Abstract: This paper studies an autonomous landing site selection method for lunar pinpoint soft landing during lander’s motion. The method includes 4 steps: motion compensation, digital elevation map generation, obstacle detection and optimal safe-site search. According to the compensated data provided by light detection and ranging, the digital elevation map is generated, then the definitions of the lunar surface roughness and slope are given, and a safely landing criterion is presented to detect the obstacle. Based on this concept, a central-helix searching method is designed to select the optimal safe landing site for lunar landers. The simulation results show validity and superiority of the autonomous landing site selection method.

Key words: light detection and ranging')">light detection and ranging, lunar soft landing, motion compensation, obstacle detection, ')">digital elevation map