Sensor head for autonomous planetary exploration

Autonomy will be one of the key features of future space exploration systems. There are several reasons to enable machines to perform standalone. First of all, a huge distance to an Earth based ground station can lead to a significant time lapse between command and control. Time critical maneuvers, like descending/ landing or evading/ handling risky situations require autonomous actions. Second, regions on planets, asteroids or comets with no direct line of sight neither to Earth nor to a relay station (e.g. caves, canyons, craters) can be explored by autonomous systems only. Third, system’s ability to approach regions of interest without interactions with human operators and even to detect and prioritize spots of scientific value will increase the efficiency of a mission. All these tasks require a reliable and precise navigation technology, which is able to operate with and without a priori knowledge (e.g. via maps, spatial reference). One promising approach to fulfil this requirement is applying an imaging sensor for the navigation system. Since cameras generate data which are very familiar to human being’s experience such sensors are predestinated to be used for a navigation system. Additionally, camera images can be used for a large number of other tasks – spatial modelling of the environment, identification of spots of interest, visual inspection of the scenery or the exploration system itself by operators. Cameras are the main sensors of the navigation system IPS. Based on the human perception system, DLR developed a multi-sensor head in the last 10 years. This sensor system acquires sensor data and determines the ego motion and derives a 3D model of the environment in real time. IPS can be a valuable technical contribution to future exploration missions on planets, asteroids and comets