IR based local tracking system Assessment for planetary exploration missions

Abstract

There has been a growing interest in expanding planetary/moon exploration such as Mars and Titan in recent years. NASA has been working on projects that place aerial vehicles at the forefront of exploring Mars and Titan, opening possibilities for UAVs to play a larger exploration role throughout the Solar System. In light of recent findings on Venus, UAS can also play a significant role in supporting experiments in the upper atmosphere. This paper explores the possibility of using a model-based, dual-axis IR laser sweep tracking and poses estimation system (also known as “Lighthouse” by the consumer Virtual Reality system industry) for UAVs on Mars in the assistance of future human exploration. While previous work established the foundation for testing the Lighthouse system’s accuracy in lab conditions utilizing an Opti-track system to fly a UAV that is simultaneously tracked by the Lighthouse system, this study uses IR/photodiode-based precision positioning as the guidance tracking system for the UAV flight instead of the Opti-track system. Three different sets of experiments were developed for this project. The first set of experiments continued the study from previous work, investigating the flight stability of the UAS when flying using Lighthouse tracking as a navigation source, and comparing results with OptiTrack. The second set of experiments looked at the flight stability of using Lighthouse tracking outdoors during the day. The third experiment repeats the second during night time conditions. All tests involved actively switching between the Lighthouse tracking and GNSS during flight using the Robotic Operating System (ROS). The results show promising tracking stability under several outdoor conditions, with position accuracy comparable to the industry standard indoor tracking system (Optitrack). This system can be a potential building block for future infrastructure on Mars and beyond.