A unified vision and inertial navigation system for planetary hoppers

Abstract

In recent years, considerable attention has been paid to hopping as a novel mode of planetary exploration. Hopping vehicles provide advantages over traditional surface exploration vehicles, such as wheeled rovers, by enabling in-situ measurements in otherwise inaccessible terrain. However, significant development over previously demonstrated vehicle navigation technologies is required to overcome the inherent challenges involved in navigating a hopping vehicle, especially in adverse terrain. While hoppers are in many ways similar to traditional landers and surface explorers, they incorporate additional, unique motions that must be accounted for beyond those of conventional planetary landing and surface navigation systems. This thesis describes a unified vision and inertial navigation system for propulsive planetary hoppers and provides demonstration of this technology. An architecture for a navigation system specific to the motions and mission profiles of hoppers is presented, incorporating unified inertial and terrain-relative navigation solutions. A modular sensor testbed, including a stereo vision package and inertial measurement unit, was developed to act as a proof-of-concept for this navigation system architecture. The system is shown to be capable of real-time output of an accurate navigation state estimate for motions and trajectories similar to those of planetary hoppers.