Related papers: Robust Fuel-Optimal Landing Guidance for Hazardous…
In this paper the problem of guidance formulation for autonomous soft landing of unmanned aerial vehicles on stationary, moving, or accelerating / maneuvering ground vehicles at desired approach angles in both azimuth and elevation is…
Future interplanetary missions will carry more and more sensitive equipment critical for setting up bases for crewed missions. The ability to manoeuvre around hazardous terrain thus becomes a critical mission aspect. However, large diverts…
Enabling robots to walk and run on yielding terrain is increasingly vital to endeavors ranging from disaster response to extraterrestrial exploration. While dynamic legged locomotion on rigid ground is challenging enough, yielding terrain…
This paper addresses the challenging problem of robust path-following for fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in complex environments with bounded external disturbances and non-smooth predefined paths. Due to the unique aerodynamic…
This paper introduces a landing guidance strategy for reusable launch vehicles (RLVs) using a model predictive approach based on sequential convex programming (SCP). The proposed approach devises two distinct optimal control problems…
In this paper, we introduce a novel deep learning based solution to the Powered-Descent Guidance (PDG) problem, grounded in principles of nonlinear Stochastic Optimal Control (SOC) and Feynman-Kac theory. Our algorithm solves the PDG…
This paper presents an innovative terminal landing guidance law that utilizes an analytic solution derived from the gravity turn trajectory. The characteristics of the derived solution are thoroughly investigated, and the solution is…
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.…
Onboard terrain sensing and mapping for safe planetary landings often suffer from missed hazardous features, e.g., small rocks, due to the large observational range and the limited resolution of the obtained terrain data. To this end, this…
To be applicable to real world scenarios trajectory planning schemes for mobile autonomous systems must be able to efficiently deal with obstacles in the area of operation. In the context of optimization based trajectory planning and…
In the event of a total loss of thrust, a pilot must identify a reachable landing site and subsequently execute a forced landing. To do so, they must estimate which region on the ground can be reached safely in gliding flight. We call this…
A control optimization approach is presented for a chaser spacecraft tasked with maintaining proximity to a target space object while avoiding collisions. The target object trajectory is provided numerically to account for both passive…
The optimization of fuel-optimal low-thrust collision avoidance maneuvers (CAMs) in scenarios involving multiple encounters between spacecraft is addressed. The optimization's objective is the minimization of the total fuel consumption…
Increase in the number of space exploration missions has led to the accumulation of space debris, posing risk of collision with the operational satellites. Addressing this challenge is crucial for the sustainability of space operations. To…
This paper presents a Neural Networks (NNs) based approach for designing the Fuel-Optimal Powered Descent Guidance (FOPDG) for lunar pinpoint landing. According to Pontryagin's Minimum Principle, the optimality conditions are first derived.…
The inherent safety alignment of Large Language Models (LLMs) is prone to erosion during fine-tuning, even when using seemingly innocuous datasets. While existing defenses attempt to mitigate this via data selection, they typically rely on…
This paper presents the preliminary design of the descent and landing trajectory of the ESA Argonaut lunar lander. The mission scenario and driving system constraints are presented and accounted for in the design of a fuel-optimal…
Terrain geometry is, in general, non-smooth, non-linear, non-convex, and, if perceived through a robot-centric visual unit, appears partially occluded and noisy. This work presents the complete control pipeline capable of handling the…
Many unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can remain aerodynamically flyable after sustaining structural or control surface damage, yet insufficient robustness in conventional autopilots often leads to mission failure. This paper proposes a…
Space robotics applications, such as Active Space Debris Removal (ASDR), require representative testing before launch. A commonly used approach to emulate the microgravity environment in space is air-bearing based platforms on flat-floors,…