Simultaneous Localization and Mapping for Planetary Surface Mobility

ProtoInnovations, LLC and Carnegie Mellon University have formed a partnership to commercially develop localization and mapping technologies for planetary rovers. Our first aim is to provide a reliable means of localization that is independent of infrastructure, such as GPS, and compatible with requirements of missions to planetary surfaces. Simultaneously solving for the precise location of the rover as it moves while building an accurate map of the environment is an optimization problem involving internal sensing, sensing of the surrounding environment, probabilistic optimization methods, efficient data structures, and a robust implementation. Our second aim is to merge simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) technologies with our existing Reliable Autonomous Surface Mobility (RASM) architecture for rover navigation. Our unique partnership brings together state-of-the-art technologies for SLAM with experience in delivering and supporting both autonomous systems and mobility platforms for NASA. Our proposed project will create a SLAM framework that is capable of accurately localizing a rover throughout long, multi-kilometer traverses of barren terrain. Our approach is compatible with limited communication and computing resources expected for missions to planetary surfaces. Our technology is based on innovative representations of evidence grids, particle-filter algorithms that operate on range data rather than explicit features, and strategies for segmenting large evidence grids into manageable pieces. In this project we will evaluate the maturity of these algorithms, developed for research programs at Carnegie Mellon, and incorporate them into our RASM architecture, thus providing portable and reliable localization for a variety of vehicle platforms and sensors. Mission constraints will vary broadly, so our SLAM components will be able to merge readings from various suites of sensors that may be found on planetary rovers.

We believe that our effort can be sustained by our unique capability and experience, which we believe is valuable to emerging lunar-rover activities in Canada, Japan, and India / Russia. The market for lunar-rover autonomy is not large but it is highly technical and critical to mission success. ProtoInnovations intends to continue R&D to position itself as a world leader in rover navigation software and experience. Commercially-available, high-resolution positioning systems have been maturing rapidly over the past decade and have penetrated into agricultural, mining, and defense markets. Most of these products filter GPS data with measurements from IMUs, encoders, and so on. Such products are robust to brief GPS drop-outs but are not robust to long-term GPS losses. Such losses are frequent in urban areas or in dense foliage, and should be expected indoors and when GPS signals are jammed. When GPS is lost, inertial measurements and dead-reckoning drift and the resulting localization error increases over time and distance traveled. SLAM is an ideal way of correcting these errors without the need for infrastructure. Our SLAM approach, with its computational efficiency and loose requirements on operating environment, is a feasible add-on technology for commercially available positioning systems.

Technical innovations from this project will have immediate application to the Lunar All-Terrain Utility Vehicle (LATUV) and will enable it to achieve its full capability as it becomes a research appliance for NASA. We also see direct applicability of this work to vehicles developed by NASA for scientific exploration, habitat construction, and landing site preparation. ProtoInnovations will seek to sustain this work by providing SLAM capability to a wide range of planetary rover vehicles and prototypes.

This is early/mid-stage (TRL 4) — the most realistic path in is NASA SBIR/STTR, which funds small businesses and research institutions to develop technology aligned with NASA's needs (equity-free, phased funding). Check whether a current SBIR/STTR solicitation topic overlaps with this project's technology area, or contact the project directly (above) to ask.

None of these are guaranteed paths for this specific project — TechPort itself doesn't have an "apply" button. Reaching out to the contact(s) above with a specific question is usually the fastest way to find out what's actually open.