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ATON - Autonomous Terrain-based Optical Navigation for Exploration Missions: Recent Flight Test Results

Theil, Stephan and Ammann, Nikolaus Alexander and Andert, Franz and Franz, Tobias and Krüger, Hans and Lehner, Hannah and Lingenauber, Martin and Lüdtke, Daniel and Maass, Bolko and Paproth, Carsten and Wohlfeil, Jürgen (2017) ATON - Autonomous Terrain-based Optical Navigation for Exploration Missions: Recent Flight Test Results. Deutscher Luft- und Raumfahrtkongress, 5-7 September 2017, Munich.

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Abstract

Since 2010 the German Aerospace Center (DLR) is working on the project ATON (Autonomous Terrain-based Optical Navigation). Its objective is the development of technologies which allow autonomous navigation of spacecraft in orbit around and during landing on celestial bodies like the Moon, planets, asteroids and comets. The project developed different image processing techniques and optical navigation methods as well as sensor data fusion. The setup - which is applicable to many exploration missions - consists of an inertial measurement unit (IMU), a laser altimeter, a star tracker and one or multiple navigation cameras. In the past years, several milestones have been achieved. It started with the setup of a simulation environment including the detailed simulation of camera images. This was continued by Hardware-in-the-Loop tests in the Testbed for Robotic Optical Navigation where images were generated by real cameras in a simulated downscaled lunar landing scene. Data was recorded in helicopter flight tests and post-processed in real-time to increase maturity of the algorithms and to optimize the software. Recently, two more milestones have been achieved. In late 2016, the whole navigation system setup was flying on an unmanned helicopter while processing all sensor information onboard in real time. For the latest milestone the navigation system was tested in closed-loop on the unmanned helicopter. For that purpose the ATON navigation system provided the navigation state for the guidance and control of the unmanned helicopter replacing the GPS-based standard navigation system. The paper will give an introduction to the ATON project and its concept. The methods and algorithms of ATON are briefly described. The flight test results of the latest two milestones are presented and discussed.

Item URL in elib:https://elib.dlr.de/114457/
Document Type:Conference or Workshop Item (Lecture)
Title:ATON - Autonomous Terrain-based Optical Navigation for Exploration Missions: Recent Flight Test Results
Authors:
AuthorsInstitution or Email of AuthorsAuthor's ORCID iD
Theil, StephanUNSPECIFIEDhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-5346-8091
Ammann, Nikolaus AlexanderUNSPECIFIEDhttps://orcid.org/0000-0001-6091-4478
Andert, FranzUNSPECIFIEDhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-1638-7735
Franz, TobiasUNSPECIFIEDhttps://orcid.org/0000-0003-1412-9625
Krüger, HansUNSPECIFIEDhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-9729-8450
Lehner, HannahUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Lingenauber, MartinUNSPECIFIEDhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-9610-727X
Lüdtke, DanielUNSPECIFIEDhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-6758-1562
Maass, BolkoUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Paproth, CarstenUNSPECIFIEDhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-0346-2169
Wohlfeil, JürgenUNSPECIFIEDhttps://orcid.org/0000-0003-1786-6460
Date:September 2017
Refereed publication:No
Open Access:Yes
Gold Open Access:No
In SCOPUS:No
In ISI Web of Science:No
Status:Published
Keywords:autonomous navigation, optical navigation, lunar landing
Event Title:Deutscher Luft- und Raumfahrtkongress
Event Location:Munich
Event Type:national Conference
Event Dates:5-7 September 2017
Organizer:DGLR
HGF - Research field:Aeronautics, Space and Transport
HGF - Program:Space
HGF - Program Themes:Space System Technology
DLR - Research area:Raumfahrt
DLR - Program:R SY - Space System Technology
DLR - Research theme (Project):R - Projekt ATON (old)
Location: Berlin-Adlershof , Braunschweig , Bremen , Oberpfaffenhofen
Institutes and Institutions:Institute of Space Systems > Navigation and Control Systems
Institute of Flight Systems > Unmanned Aircraft
Institut of Simulation and Software Technology > Software for Space Systems and Interactive Visualisation
Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics (since 2013) > Perception and Cognition
Institute of Optical Sensor Systems > Real-Time Data Processing
Deposited By: Theil, Dr.-Ing. Stephan
Deposited On:24 Oct 2017 11:13
Last Modified:31 Jul 2019 20:11

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