Lidar Sensor Performance in Closed-Loop Flight Testing of the Morpheus Rocket-Propelled Lander to a Lunar-Like Hazard Field

Roback, Vincent E.; Pierrottet, Diego F.; Amzajerdian, Farzin; Barnes, Bruce W.; Bulyshev, A. E.; Hines, Glenn D.; Petway, Larry B.; Brewster, Paul F.; Kempton, Kevin S.

doi:10.2514/6.2015-0328

Cited by 7 publications

(6 citation statements)

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“…The Flash Lidar also experienced minor performance degradation due to scintillation. Additional details on performance degradation have been provided previously 8 and will be expanded upon in a forthcoming publication.…”

Section: Flight Test Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The three lidar sensor systems have undergone a series of development and five field test cycles over the eight year lifecycle of the ALHAT project. 8 Initial results of the culminating campaign of the project, Field Test 6 (FT6), have recently been reported. 8,9 The present report will provide greater detail on the Flash Lidar results.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…8 Initial results of the culminating campaign of the project, Field Test 6 (FT6), have recently been reported. 8,9 The present report will provide greater detail on the Flash Lidar results. With the demonstration in a relevant environment during FT6, the ALHAT system reached its TRL 6 goal.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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3D flash lidar performance in flight testing on the Morpheus autonomous, rocket-propelled lander to a lunar-like hazard field

et al. 2016

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For the first time, a 3-D imaging Flash Lidar instrument has been used in flight to scan a lunar-like hazard field, build a 3-D Digital Elevation Map (DEM), identify a safe landing site, and, in concert with an experimental Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GN&C) system, help to guide the Morpheus autonomous, rocket-propelled, free-flying lander to that safe site on the hazard field. The flight tests served as the TRL 6 demo of the Autonomous Precision Landing and Hazard Detection and Avoidance Technology (ALHAT) system and included launch from NASA-Kennedy, a lunar-like descent trajectory from an altitude of 250m, and landing on a lunar-like hazard field of rocks, craters, hazardous slopes, and safe sites 400m down-range. The ALHAT project developed a system capable of enabling safe, precise crewed or robotic landings in challenging terrain on planetary bodies under any ambient lighting conditions. The Flash Lidar is a second generation, compact, real-time, air-cooled instrument. Based upon extensive on-ground characterization at flight ranges, the Flash Lidar was shown to be capable of imaging hazards from a slant range of 1 km with an 8 cm range precision and a range accuracy better than 35 cm, both at 1-σ. The Flash Lidar identified landing hazards as small as 30 cm from the maximum slant range which Morpheus could achieve (450 m); however, under certain wind conditions it was susceptible to scintillation arising from air heated by the rocket engine and to pre-triggering on a dust cloud created during launch and transported down-range by wind.

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Section: Flight Test Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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3D flash lidar performance in flight testing on the Morpheus autonomous, rocket-propelled lander to a lunar-like hazard field

et al. 2016

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“…The maximum slant range at which the flash LIDAR was operated onboard Morpheus at KSC was approximately 470 m. 14 Fig. 3(a) shows a range contour plot for one frame of FF11 data with several rock hazards visible at a slant range of approximately 470 m just before commencement of mosaic operations.…”

Section: A Flash Lidarmentioning

confidence: 99%

Flight testing a Real-Time Hazard Detection System for Safe Lunar Landing on the Rocket-Powered Morpheus Vehicle

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Luna

et al. 2015

AIAA Guidance, Navigation, and Control Conference

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The Hazard Detection System (HDS) is a component of the ALHAT (Autonomous Landing and Hazard Avoidance Technology) sensor suite, which together provide a lander Guidance, Navigation and Control (GN&C) system with the relevant measurements necessary to enable safe precision landing under any lighting conditions. The HDS consists of a stand-alone compute element (CE), an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU), and a gimbaled flash LIDAR sensor that are used, in real-time, to generate a Digital Elevation Map (DEM) of the landing terrain, detect candidate safe landing sites for the vehicle through Hazard Detection (HD), and generate hazard-relative navigation (HRN) measurements used for safe precision landing. Following an extensive ground and helicopter test campaign, ALHAT was integrated onto the Morpheus rocket-powered terrestrial test vehicle in March 2014. Morpheus and ALHAT then performed five successful free flights at the simulated lunar hazard field constructed at the Shuttle Landing Facility (SLF) at Kennedy Space Center, for the first time testing the full system on a lunar-like approach geometry in a relevant dynamic environment. During these flights, the HDS successfully generated DEMs, correctly identified safe landing sites and provided HRN measurements to the vehicle, marking the first autonomous landing of a NASA rocket-powered vehicle in hazardous terrain. This paper provides a brief overview of the HDS architecture and describes its in-flight performance.

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“…One is a range image from a slant path angle of 30° (60° angle of incidence for the lidar) showing some rock piles and the ground slope (color gradient from bottom to top) as apparent from the lidar view angle. Second is a derived elevation image showing rocks as small as 30 cm 19 .…”

Section: Alhat Demonstration Flight Testsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Imaging flash LIDAR for safe landing on solar system bodies and spacecraft rendezvous and docking

et al. 2015

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NASA has been pursuing flash lidar technology for autonomous, safe landing on solar system bodies and for automated rendezvous and docking. During the final stages of the landing from about 1 km to 500 m above the ground, the flash lidar can generate 3-Dimensional images of the terrain to identify hazardous features such as craters, rocks, and steep slopes. The onboard flight computer can then use the 3-D map of terrain to guide the vehicle to a safe location. As an automated rendezvous and docking sensor, the flash lidar can provide relative range, velocity, and bearing from an approaching spacecraft to another spacecraft or a space station. NASA Langley Research Center has developed and demonstrated a flash lidar sensor system capable of generating 16k pixels range images with 7 cm precision, at 20 Hz frame rate, from a maximum slant range of 1800 m from the target area. This paper describes the lidar instrument and presents the results of recent flight tests onboard a rocket-propelled free-flyer vehicle (Morpheus) built by NASA Johnson Space Center. The flights were conducted at a simulated lunar terrain site, consisting of realistic hazard features and designated landing areas, built at NASA Kennedy Space Center specifically for this demonstration test. This paper also provides an overview of the plan for continued advancement of the flash lidar technology aimed at enhancing its performance to meet both landing and automated rendezvous and docking applications.NASA's interest in flash lidar technology stems from its ability to record full 3-D images with a single laser pulse, freezing the scene on every frame by removing all motion of the transmitter/receiver platform. Unlike earlier topographic imaging lidar systems that generated 3D images by scanning the laser beam across the scene and measuring the time of arrival for https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20150010965 2020-07-04T14:06:10+00:00Z Figure 2. a) Orion vehicle docking with an Earth Departure Stage; b) Lidar sensor characterizing an asteroid surface before terminal approach for collecting samples or capturing a boulder.

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Lidar Sensor Performance in Closed-Loop Flight Testing of the Morpheus Rocket-Propelled Lander to a Lunar-Like Hazard Field

Cited by 7 publications

References 10 publications

3D flash lidar performance in flight testing on the Morpheus autonomous, rocket-propelled lander to a lunar-like hazard field

3D flash lidar performance in flight testing on the Morpheus autonomous, rocket-propelled lander to a lunar-like hazard field

Flight testing a Real-Time Hazard Detection System for Safe Lunar Landing on the Rocket-Powered Morpheus Vehicle

Imaging flash LIDAR for safe landing on solar system bodies and spacecraft rendezvous and docking

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