Related papers: LunarNav: Crater-based Localization for Long-range…

Efficient path planning is key for safe autonomous navigation over complex and unknown terrains. Lunar Zebro (LZ), a project of the Delft University of Technology, aims to deploy a compact rover, no larger than an A4 sheet of paper and…

The past decade has witnessed a growing interest in lunar exploration missions. The autonomy of lunar surface and in-orbit missions is, however, dependent on accurate and instantaneous navigation services. These services can not be provided…

Enhanced AutoNav (ENav), the baseline surface navigation software for NASA's Perseverance rover, sorts a list of candidate paths for the rover to traverse, then uses the Approximate Clearance Evaluation (ACE) algorithm to evaluate whether…

The discovery of ice deposits in the permanently shadowed craters of the lunar North and South Pole Moon presents an important opportunity for In-Situ Resource Utilization. These ice deposits maybe the source for sustaining a lunar base or…

Through multiple, small unmanned probes we can more efficiently capture an asteroid and return it to lunar orbit. The Asteroid Return and Exploration System (ARES) aims to make use of previously tested technology with the application of a…

NASA's Cooperative Autonomous Distributed Robotic Exploration (CADRE) mission, slated for flight to the Moon's Reiner Gamma region in 2025/2026, is designed to demonstrate multi-agent autonomous exploration of the Lunar surface and…

This paper introduces a closed-form analytical solution for the inverse kinematics (IK) of a 6 Degrees of Freedom (DOF) serial robotic manipulator arm, configured with six revolute joints and utilized within the Lunar Exploration Rover…

NASA aims to establish a sustainable human basecamp on the Moon as a stepping stone for future missions to Mars and beyond. The discovery of water ice on the Moon's craters located in permanently shadowed regions, which can provide drinking…

We present a light-weight body-terrain clearance evaluation algorithm for the automated path planning of NASA's Mars 2020 rover. Extraterrestrial path planning is challenging due to the combination of terrain roughness and severe limitation…

Human long duration exploration missions (LDEMs) raise a number of technological challenges. This paper addresses the question of the crew autonomy: as the distances increase, the communication delays and constraints tend to prevent the…

Future Mars missions will require advanced guidance, navigation, and control algorithms for the powered descent phase to target specific surface locations and achieve pinpoint accuracy (landing error ellipse $<$ 5 m radius). The latter…

The next generation of Mars rotorcrafts requires on-board autonomous hazard avoidance landing. To this end, this work proposes a system that performs continuous multi-resolution height map reconstruction and safe landing spot detection.…

The interest in returning to the Moon for research and exploration has increased as new tipping point technologies are providing the possibility to do so. One of these initiatives is the Artemis program by NASA, which plans to return humans…

As spacecraft send back increasing amounts of telemetry data, improved anomaly detection systems are needed to lessen the monitoring burden placed on operations engineers and reduce operational risk. Current spacecraft monitoring systems…

The Lunar Gateway is expected to be positioned on-orbit around the Moon or in a Halo orbit at the L2 Lagrange point. The proposed Lunar Gateway is a game-changer for enabling new, high-priority lunar science utilizing Cu-beSats and presents…

The European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Space Resources Innovation Centre (ESRIC) created the Space Resources Challenge to invite researchers and companies to propose innovative solutions for Multi-Robot Systems (MRS) space…

Automotive self-localization is an essential task for any automated driving function. This means that the vehicle has to reliably know its position and orientation with an accuracy of a few centimeters and degrees, respectively. This paper…

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) visual localization in planetary aims to estimate the absolute pose of the UAV in the world coordinate system through satellite maps and images captured by on-board cameras. However, since planetary scenes…

In the context of mobile navigation in unstructured environments, the predominant approach entails the avoidance of obstacles. The prevailing path planning algorithms are contingent upon deviating from the intended path for an indefinite…

Lunar laser ranging (LLR) to the Apollo retro-reflectors, which features the most long-lasting experiment in testing General Relativity theories, has remained operational over the past four decades. To date, with significant improvement of…