Related papers: Autonomous Crosslink Radionavigation for a Lunar C…
Mega-constellations in Low Earth Orbit have the potential to revolutionise worldwide internet access. The concomitant potential of these mega-constellations to impact space sustainability, however, has prompted concern from space actors as…
Exploration of Mars has been made possible using a series of landers, rovers and orbiters. The HiRise camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has captured high-resolution images covering large tracts of the surface. However, orbital…
A new era of exploration of the low radio frequency Universe from the Moon will soon be underway with landed payload missions facilitated by NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. CLPS landers are scheduled to deliver two…
Autonomous navigation in unstructured environments requires robots to assess terrain difficulty in real-time and plan paths that balance efficiency with safety. This thesis presents a traversability-aware navigation framework for the M4…
Small body exploration is a pertinent challenge due to low gravity environments and strong sensitivity to perturbations like Solar Radiation Pressure (SRP). Thus, autonomous methods are being developed to enable safe navigation and control…
Autonomous navigation consists in an agent being able to navigate without human intervention or supervision, it affects both high level planning and low level control. Navigation is at the crossroad of multiple disciplines, it combines…
The Moon is a unique platform for fundamental astrophysical measurements of gravitation, the Sun, and the Universe. Lacking a permanent ionosphere and, on the farside, shielded from terrestrial radio emissions, a radio telescope on the Moon…
Localization is an important required task for enabling vehicle autonomy for underwater vehicles. Localization entails the determination of position of the center of mass and orientation of a vehicle from the available measurements. In this…
This paper presents the development and evaluation of an optimization-based autonomous trajectory planning algorithm for the asteroid reconnaissance phase of a deep-space exploration mission. The reconnaissance phase is a low-altitude flyby…
In this paper, a practical approach to the trajectory design for asteroid exploration missions with CubeSats is presented. When applied trajectories are sought, operative concerns and uncertainties affecting the spacecraft dynamics must be…
Robust autonomous navigation in environments with limited visibility remains a critical challenge in robotics. We present a novel approach that leverages Non-Line-of-Sight (NLOS) sensing using single-photon LiDAR to improve visibility and…
Given the critical roles that satellites play in national defense, public safety, and worldwide communications, finding ways to determine satellite trajectories is a crucially important task for improved space situational awareness.…
This paper presents a nonsingular fast terminal sliding mode-based adaptive smooth control methodology for a distributed space telescope demonstration mission. The distributed space telescope has a flexible focal length that corresponds to…
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…
An autonomous airborne network (AN) consists of multiple unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), which can self-configure to provide seamless, low-cost and secure connectivity. AN is preferred for applications in civilian and military sectors…
The Satellite for Orbital Aerodynamics Research (SOAR) is a CubeSat mission, due to be launched in 2021, to investigate the interaction between different materials and the atmospheric flow regime in very low Earth orbits (VLEO). Improving…
CubeSats offer a flexible and low-cost option to increase the scientific and technological return of small-body exploration missions. ESA's Hera mission, the European component of the Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment (AIDA)…
Autonomous robots relying on radio frequency (RF)-based localization such as global navigation satellite system (GNSS), ultra-wide band (UWB), and 5G integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) are vulnerable to spoofing and sensor…
The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) is poised to revolutionize astrophysics and cosmology in the late 2030's by unlocking unprecedented insights into the most energetic and elusive astrophysical phenomena. The mission envisages…
The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) will enable direct observations of low-frequency gravitational waves, offering unprecedented insight into astrophysical and cosmological phenomena. LISA's heterodyne interferometric measurement…