Onboard Autonomous Trajectory Planner

The goal of this research is to develop an autonomous guidance strategy for precision landing in uncertain and dynamic environments and is robust to component failures. The Onboard Autonomous Trajectory Planner (OATP) would use high performance computing (HPC) hardware to design and evaluate six degree-of-freedom (6DoF) trajectories using on-board real-time Monte Carlo simulation (MCS) analysis. The OATP guidance can evaluate in real-time the robustness of trajectory solutions to uncertainties in vehicle navigational states and modeling uncertainties in both vehicle and planetary parameters. In the event that on-board or environmental conditions differ drastically from the reference (e.g. engine failure, aeroshell anomaly, atmosphere event, etc.), the OATP guidance autonomously re-designs and re-evaluates trajectories to accommodate. The focus of this proposal is to increase guidance system flexibility by enabling it to autonomously incorporate updates in modeling uncertainties and parameters obtained through in situ measurements just prior to and during EDL. To accomplish this, our novel approach leverages HPC hardware to design and evaluate trajectory designs through on-board and real-time MCS analyses. Updates to modeling uncertainties and parameters would be obtained through on-board navigation and sensor systems developed externally to this research. This approach will be successful, because early analysis has demonstrated its ability to overcome two main hurdles: the availability of hardware that can reasonably execute the OATP guidance, and the time required to obtain a guidance solution. Through a partnership with HPE, the OATP guidance was successful in operating on COTS multi-core central processing unit (CPU) hardware installed inside the ISS. While operating on multi-core CPU hardware available at NASA LaRC, the OATP guidance was able to provide guidance solutions for a 60 s long trajectory within 0.3 s. As capabilities are added to the OATP guidance, its execution time will change. To evaluate the success and capabilities of the OATP guidance, two forms of it have been built: a stand-alone form, and a form integrated into the Program to Optimize Simulated Trajectories – II (POST2). The stand-alone form will evaluate the execution time, while the POST2 form will evaluate the ability of the OATP guidance to meet mission requirements. For this proposal, the OATP guidance is applied to the human Mars mission architecture powered descent problem. The OATP guidance will be evaluated in how quickly it can provide guidance solutions and how well those solutions guide the vehicle to the landing target. Future systems equipped with the OATP guidance will be able to autonomously design trajectories using strategies that are currently limited to engineers on the ground. Combined with sensors, OATP guidance can adapt to changing conditions during EDL.

The OATP guidance can evaluate in real-time the robustness of trajectory solutions to uncertainties in vehicle navigational states and modeling uncertainties in both vehicle and planetary parameters. In the event that on-board or environmental conditions differ drastically from the reference (e.g. engine failure, aeroshell anomaly, atmosphere event, etc.), the OATP guidance autonomously re-designs and re-evaluates trajectories to accommodate.

This is a mature technology (TRL 7+) — the realistic path in is usually NASA's Technology Transfer Program: licensing an existing NASA patent, or a Space Act Agreement to use NASA facilities/expertise directly. NASA also runs a startup licensing program with no upfront fee for companies formed to commercialize a specific NASA technology.

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.