Advancements of Vision-Based Autonomous Planetary Landing Systems and Preliminary Testing by Means of a New Dedicated Experimental Facility

Abstract

In this paper, a suite of tools and algorithms devoted to optical navigation for autonomous landing on planets and small bodies, currently under development at PoliMi-DAER, is presented. An hazard detection system based on a single camera and artificial neural networks selects the most suitable landing site for the lander. Autonomous guidance on board computes the trajectory to reach for the designated landing site. The two systems are linked by vision-based navigation, which reconstructs the relative spacecraft states with respect to the ground. The ultimate goal is to create a whole Autonomous Guidance, Navigation and Control chain for autonomous landings. An experimental facility currently under setup at PoliMi premises to verify, validate and test the aforementioned optical landing tools is finally presented.

Paolo Lunghi

Assistant Professor of Aerospace Systems

Aiming for autonomous Guidance, Navigation, and Control for spacecraft.