Related papers: An Image-Based Sensor System for Autonomous Rendez…

Space debris is on the rise due to the increasing demand for spacecraft for com-munication, navigation, and other applications. The Space Surveillance Network (SSN) tracks over 27,000 large pieces of debris and estimates the number of…

With the high focus on autonomous aerial refueling recently, it becomes increasingly urgent to design efficient methods or algorithms to solve AAR problems in complicated aerial environments. Apart from the complex aerodynamic disturbance,…

This study develops an AI-based implementation of autonomous On-Orbit Servicing (OOS) mission to assist with spacecraft collision avoidance maneuvers (CAMs). We propose an autonomous `servicer' trained with Reinforcement Learning (RL) to…

Autonomous satellite servicing missions must execute close-range rendezvous under stringent safety and operational constraints while remaining computationally tractable for onboard use and robust to uncertainty in sensing, actuation, and…

Image-based localization in GNSS-denied environments is critical for UAV autonomy. Existing state-of-the-art approaches rely on matching UAV images to geo-referenced satellite images; however, they typically require large-scale, paired…

We introduce a multi-sensor navigation system for autonomous surface vessels (ASV) intended for water-quality monitoring in freshwater lakes. Our mission planner uses satellite imagery as a prior map, formulating offline a mission-level…

Optical cameras are gaining popularity as the suitable sensor for relative navigation in space due to their attractive sizing, power and cost properties when compared to conventional flight hardware or costly laser-based systems. However, a…

Using the "statite," or static-satelite, concept -- an artificial satellite capable of hovering in place using a solar sail -- this work proposes to create a dynamic orbital slingshot in anticipation of Interstellar Objects (ISOs) passing…

This paper presents a coordination algorithm for mobile autonomous robots. Relying upon distributed sensing the robots achieve rendezvous, that is, they move to a common location. Each robot is a point mass moving in a nonconvex environment…

Cameras are rapidly becoming the choice for on-board sensors towards space rendezvous due to their small form factor and inexpensive power, mass, and volume costs. When it comes to docking, however, they typically serve a secondary role,…

The surge of deep-space probes makes it unsustainable to navigate them with standard radiometric tracking. Self-driving interplanetary satellites represent a solution to this problem. In this work, a full vision-based navigation algorithm…

In this paper, we present a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) aided LiDAR-visual-inertial scheme, RailLoMer-V, for accurate and robust rail vehicle localization and mapping. RailLoMer-V is formulated atop a factor graph and consists…

Low earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellations are becoming a cornerstone of next-generation satellite networks, enabling worldwide high-precision navigation and high-quality remote sensing. This paper proposes a novel dual-function LEO…

This paper presents an autonomous sensing framework for identifying and localizing multiple users in Fifth Generation (5G) cooperative networks using an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) that is not part of the serving access network. Unlike…

This paper presents an adaptive visual servoing framework for robotic on-orbit servicing (OOS), specifically designed for capturing tumbling satellites. The vision-guided robotic system is capable of selecting optimal control actions in the…

To address the challenge of autonomous UGV localization in GNSS-denied off-road environments,this study proposes a matching-based localization method that leverages BEV perception image and satellite map within a road similarity space to…

The robustness and accuracy of a vision system for motion estimation of a tumbling target satellite are enhanced by an adaptive Kalman filter. This allows a vision-guided robot to complete the grasping of the target even if occlusion occurs…

In this paper, we present a subsystem, using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), for search and rescue missions, focusing on people detection, face recognition and tracking of identified individuals. The proposed solution integrates a UAV with…

A new era of space exploration and exploitation is fast approaching. A multitude of spacecraft will flow in the future decades under the propulsive momentum of the new space economy. Yet, the flourishing proliferation of deep-space assets…

We propose an approach to estimate the 6DOF pose of a satellite, relative to a canonical pose, from a single image. Such a problem is crucial in many space proximity operations, such as docking, debris removal, and inter-spacecraft…