AUTONOMOUS HAZARD AVOIDANCE FOR PLANETARY LANDERS

Robotic exploration of planets in rugged landscape requires autonomous planning and decision making during the critical phases of final descent and landing. The lander maps the terrain during descent and selects a suitable landing site based on the terrain characteristics and a set of predefined criteria. A trajectory planning algorithm then computes a trajectory to reach the selected target. Hazard avoidance components – hazard mapping, site selection and trajectory planning – are described and improvements on previous work are presented.