Analysis of flash lidar field test data for safe lunar landing

Author

Johnson, Andrew E. ; Keim, Jason A. ; Ivanov, Tonislav

Author_Institution

Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Technol., Pasadena, CA, USA

fYear

2010

fDate

6-13 March 2010

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

11

Abstract

In May 2008, the Autonomous Landing and Hazard Avoidance Technology (ALHAT) Project conducted a helicopter field test of a commercial flash lidar to assess its applicability to safe lunar landing. The helicopter flew several flights, which covered a variety of slant ranges and viewing angles, over man-made and natural lunar-like terrains. The collected data were analyzed to assess the performance of the sensor and the performance of two algorithms: Hazard Detection (HD) and Hazard Relative Navigation (HRN). The collected flash lidar data were also used to validate a high fidelity flash lidar software model used in ALHAT Monte Carlo simulations. The field test results, combined with prior simulation results, advanced the technology readiness level of the HD algorithm to TRL 5 and the HRN algorithm to TRL 4.

Keywords

aircraft landing guidance; astronomical techniques; helicopters; optical radar; Monte Carlo simulations; autonomous landing and hazard avoidance technology; flash LIDAR field test data analysis; hazard detection; hazard relative navigation; helicopter field test; lunar landing; Aircraft navigation; Algorithm design and analysis; Data analysis; Hazards; Helicopters; High definition video; Laser radar; Moon; Performance analysis; Testing;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Aerospace Conference, 2010 IEEE

Conference_Location

Big Sky, MT

ISSN

1095-323X

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-3887-7

Electronic_ISBN

1095-323X

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/AERO.2010.5447025

Filename

5447025