Related papers: Architecting Autonomy for Safe Microgravity Free-F…
We present a multirotor architecture capable of aggressive autonomous flight and collision-free teleoperation in unstructured, GPS-denied environments. The proposed system enables aggressive and safe autonomous flight around clutter by…
The recent increase in yearly spacecraft launches and the high number of planned launches have raised questions about maintaining accessibility to space for all interested parties. A key to sustaining the future of space-flight is the…
Small, low-size, weight, power, and cost (SWaP-C) uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) are increasingly used for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) missions due to their affordability, attritability, and suitability for…
The MICROSCOPE space mission aims to test the Equivalence Principle with an accuracy of $10^{-15}$. The drag-free micro-satellite will orbit around the Earth and embark a differential electrostatic accelerometer including two cylindrical…
We are in the process of building complex highly autonomous systems that have build-in beliefs, perceive their environment and exchange information. These systems construct their respective world view and based on it they plan their future…
As robots aspire for long-term autonomous operations in complex dynamic environments, the ability to reliably take mission-critical decisions in ambiguous situations becomes critical. This motivates the need to build systems that have…
Formation-flying studies to date have required continuous and minute corrections of the orbital elements and attitudes of the spacecraft.This increases the complexity, and associated risk, of controlling the formation, which often makes…
The Independent Configurable Architecture for Reliable Operations of Unmanned Systems (ICAROUS) is a software architecture incorporating a set of algorithms to enable autonomous operations of unmanned aircraft applications. This paper…
Linear-infrastructure Mission Control (LiMiC) is an application for autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) infrastructure inspection mission planning developed in monolithic software architecture. The application calculates routes along…
We study the problem of motion-planning for free-flying multi-link robots and develop a sampling-based algorithm that is specifically tailored for the task. Our work is based on the simple observation that the set of configurations for…
The rapid expansion of mega-constellations in low Earth orbits has posed significant challenges to space traffic management, necessitating periodic inspections of satellites to ensure the sustainability of the space environment when…
In the near future, autonomous space systems will compose many of the deployed spacecraft. Their tasks will involve autonomous rendezvous and proximity operations with large structures, such as inspections, assembly, and maintenance of…
This study presents autonomous guidance and control strategies for the purpose of reconfiguring close-range multi-satellite formations. The formation under consideration includes $N$ under-actuated deputy satellites and an uncontrolled…
This paper presents an end-to-end framework for robust structure/control optimization of an industrial benchmark. When dealing with space structures, a reduction of the spacecraft mass is paramount to minimize the mission cost and maximize…
Micromobility, which utilizes lightweight mobile machines moving in urban public spaces, such as delivery robots and mobility scooters, emerges as a promising alternative to vehicular mobility. Current micromobility depends mostly on human…
Tunnel construction using the drill-and-blast method requires the 3D measurement of the excavation front to evaluate underbreak locations. Considering the inspection and measurement task's safety, cost, and efficiency, deploying lightweight…
Mobile robots, becoming increasingly autonomous, are capable of operating in diverse and unknown environments. This flexibility allows them to fulfill goals independently and adapting their actions dynamically without rigidly predefined…
In recent years, using drone, also known as unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), in close-distance visual inspection has became an active area in many disciplines. However, many challenges still remain before we can achieve autonomous inspection,…
Due to the complexity and inconstancy of the space environment, accurate mathematical models for spacecraft rendezvous are difficult to obtain, which consequently complicates the control tasks. In this paper, a linearized time-variant plant…
This study describes the development and validation of a novel microgravity experimental platform that is mainly applied to small robots such as modular self-reconfigurable robots. This platform mainly consists of an air supply system, a…