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Active TRL 2 (started at 2, targeting 3)
The goal of this proposal is to develop a real-time perception-aware trajectory planner for autonomous planetary landing missions. The autonomous lander must be able to safely land in unseen and treacherous environments by reasoning about uncertainty in perception information and swiftly adapting its desired landing location based on new observations. The three key research thrusts are: (1) Developing a systematic approach to tightly integrate perception with trajectory planning to actively monitor potential landing sites and replan to a new landing site if the current site is deemed unviable as new observations are received. (2) Constructing a principled approach to prioritizing landing sites that balance safety considerations with proximity to scientific points of interest(s). (3) Designing operationally relevant tests to validate the effectiveness of the proposed perception-aware planning algorithm and demonstrate its real-time capabilities on various hardware platforms. This research directly benefits NASA's Entry, Descent, and Landing (EDL) research interests, with a particular focus on Robot Navigation (TA4.2.6) for autonomous planetary landings especially in cases where there is little to no a priori information about the environment. Additionally, this research addresses the challenges of Large Divert Guidance (TA9.2.6), Autonomous Targeting (TA9.2.8), and Guidance, Navigation, and Control for EDL (TA9.2.6) as core elements of the research include identifying and monitoring potential landing sights, and planning feasible trajectories that can reach multiple potential landing sites in case some are deemed infeasible later on.
Listed on TechPort itself — the most direct way to ask about this specific project.
This is early/mid-stage (TRL 2) — 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.
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