Robotic Autonomous Navigation and Orientation Tracking System

To address the NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) needs for improved robotic platform navigation and real-time position and orientation tracking on the infrastructure-free lunar, planetary, or asteroid surfaces, Physical Optics Corporation (POC) proposes to develop a new Robotic Autonomous Navigation and Orientation Tracking System (RANOTS) based on a set of compact and reliable self-mixing interferometers utilizing low power semiconductor laser diodes. This system will supplement currently used vision-based navigation and wheel odometers to improve navigation precision, location awareness, and platform orientation tracking for lunar and Mars Exploration Rovers (MERs), planetary extravehicular activities (EVA), and manned rovers. The RANOTS will offer position accuracy better than 1 m with 95% probability per hour of fast (meters per second) motion without interacting with other positioning systems, and be compact (<10 cu. in.), lightweight (<8 oz), and consume <0.25 W of power. In Phase I, POC will demonstrate the feasibility of the RANOTS by creating and testing a preliminary prototype, which will demonstrate technology readiness level (TRL)-4 by the end of Phase I. In Phase II, POC plans to develop a fully functional prototype and demonstrate its operation on an autonomous vehicle on rough Earth terrain (TRL-6). The RANOTS development will offer NASA the capabilities to provide precise navigation and attitude tracking to support significantly faster moving platforms on lunar or Martian missions, thus enhancing the scientific output of these expensive enterprises.

The proposed RANOTS will directly contribute to the success of future NASA moon, Mars, and asteroid missions planned within several research programs, especially the NASA Mars Rover program. At the end of Phase II NASA will have a compact, completely autonomous, automatic navigation system that provides fast high-accuracy tracking and positioning of rovers, moving modules, and walking astronauts. The small-sized RANOTS hardware and embedded software systems will be designed to perform real-time data processing and provide position accuracy better than 1 m and better than 1 degree roll, pitch, and yaw measurements with 95% probability per 1 hr of autonomic motion of autonomous platforms or astronauts during lunar and Mars missions. The RANOTS will allow for accurate navigation of platforms moving at significantly higher velocities (meters per second) than the maximum velocity of current Martian Exploration Vehicles (5 cm/s).

The RANOTS military applications will include navigation for military vehicles, unmanned ground vehicles, and dismounted soldiers in GPS denied environments, urban areas, underground tunnels, or within large buildings, where GPS does not work properly. The RANOTS commercial applications will include use by firefighters in complex terrain or inside buildings, in step counter distance meters used for recreation and sports, and with navigation/tracking systems for mine workers and underground/underwater explorers. The RANOTS can also be used by aid agencies and personnel in automobiles when traveling in urban areas where GPS coverage can be compromised.

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.

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