Abstract
The VTNF (Vision-based Terrain Navigation Facility) is an innovative platform designed as a test bed for studying open issues related to the navigation of a planetary lander in its Entry-Descent-Landing (EDL) phase. The facility makes available a safe indoor flight volume, fully tracked by infrared cameras, an autonomous quadrotor equipped with a camera and a diorama representing a portion of Martian surface. The quadrotor is used to trigger pictures of the diorama from coordinates that are scaled according to a virtual mission in its EDL phase, simulated on a dedicated workstation. The pictures are then processed to provide information about the presence of particular geological features (craters, canyons, hills …) and to estimate an hazard-free descent trajectory. This article offers an overview of the design solutions implemented in the facility, both from the hardware and from the software/control point of view.
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Toma, A., Chiaberge, M., Silvagni, M., Dara, G. (2014). The Vision-Based Terrain Navigation Facility: A Technological Overview. In: Hodicky, J. (eds) Modelling and Simulation for Autonomous Systems. MESAS 2014. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 8906. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-13823-7_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-13823-7_6
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