Reconnaissance rover designed for multiple agile and autonomous landings over a small body or moon

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11459126-B2
Application number	US-201816646053-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 24, 2018
Priority date	Sep 11, 2017
Publication date	Oct 4, 2022
Grant date	Oct 4, 2022

Abstract

A reconnaissance rover configured for multiple agile and autonomous landings over a small body or moon. The reconnaissance rover comprises a detection unit, a processing unit, a control unit and a drive unit. The detection unit is configured to detect at least an environment in front of the reconnaissance rover, in the direction of a trajectory of the reconnaissance rover over a surface of the small body or moon. The detection unit is further configured to provide environmental data based on the detected environment. The processing unit is configured to update the trajectory based upon the provided environmental data. The control unit interacts with the drive unit to move the reconnaissance rover according to the updated trajectory.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A reconnaissance rover configured for multiple agile and autonomous landings over a small body or moon, the small body or moon having gravitational forces in terms of an acceleration in a range of 10 −6 and 10 −4 m/s 2 , the reconnaissance rover comprising:
a detection unit, which is configured to detect at least an environment in front of the reconnaissance rover, in the direction of a trajectory of the reconnaissance rover over a surface of the small body or moon and to provide environmental data based on the detected environment;
a processing unit, which is configured to update the trajectory based upon the provided environmental data; and
a control unit and a drive unit, which are configured to interact in order to move the reconnaissance rover according to the updated trajectory, wherein the drive unit is designed to apply forces which are in a range between 1 N and 10 −6 N, in order to hold the reconnaissance rover in a hovering state above the surface for a period from 1 minute to 1 hour.

2. The reconnaissance rover as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the drive unit is also configured to be operated in a vacuum.

3. The reconnaissance rover as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the updated trajectory is a polygonal chain and the reconnaissance rover is configured to perform a rotation in a horizontal plane of the reconnaissance rover at one point in the polygonal chain, in order to align itself according to the polygonal path following the point and to move along the polygonal path following the point after the rotation.

4. The reconnaissance rover as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the drive unit is additionally configured to adjust a speed of the reconnaissance rover relative to the small body or moon, to move the reconnaissance rover along the updated trajectory, a solar pressure of a sun being taken into account when adjusting the speed.

5. The reconnaissance rover as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the detection unit is also configured to detect a relative distance of a current position of the reconnaissance rover with respect to the surface of the small body or moon and to provide said distance to the processing unit, which in turn is configured to provide the control unit with a target speed corresponding to the relative distance, the control unit being configured to interact with the drive unit to move the reconnaissance rover according to the updated trajectory.

6. The reconnaissance rover as claimed in claim 1 , also comprising an acceleration sensor which is configured to measure an acceleration of the reconnaissance rover, the processing unit being configured to provide the control unit with a speed necessary for tracking the updated trajectory based on the measured acceleration.

7. The reconnaissance rover as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the processing unit is configured, based on a gravitational force module of the small body or moon, when updating the trajectory to take into account at least one of a maximum velocity relative to the small body or moon, which the reconnaissance rover must not exceed, or a minimum velocity which it must not fall below.

8. The reconnaissance rover as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the processing unit is configured, when updating the trajectory, to take into account that along the trajectory only torque values of less than 10-2 Nm occur in a direction facing towards or away from a center of gravity of the small body or moon.

9. The reconnaissance rover as claimed in claim 1 , the reconnaissance rover comprising an energy supply system, and wherein the energy supply system has an energy storage device and an energy supply device, the energy supply system being configured to supply the drive unit with energy.

10. The reconnaissance rover as claimed in claim 9 , wherein the energy supply device is configured to supply the energy storage device and the drive unit with energy when solar radiation from a sun is present.

11. The reconnaissance rover as claimed in claim 9 , wherein the energy storage device is configured to supply the drive unit with energy in case no solar radiation from a sun is present.

12. The reconnaissance rover as claimed in claim 9 , wherein the energy storage device, together with the energy supply device, is configured to supply the drive unit with energy when a supply voltage delivered by the energy supply device falls below a threshold value, the threshold value being a minimum supply voltage of the drive unit.

13. The reconnaissance rover as claimed in claim 9 , wherein the processing unit is configured, when updating the trajectory, to take into account a landing position for the reconnaissance rover at the end of the updated trajectory or a landing position for the reconnaissance rover being below the updated trajectory on a surface of the small body or moon has a line-of-sight connection to a sun, in order to supply the energy supply device with energy by radiation from the sun.

14. The reconnaissance rover as claimed in claim 9 , wherein at least one of the energy supply device is configured to supply the energy storage device with energy, or the energy storage device is configured to be supplied with energy from the energy supply device.

15. The reconnaissance rover as claimed in claim 9 , wherein the energy supply system has only unidirectional electrical connections.

16. A reconnaissance rover configured for multiple agile and autonomous landings over a small body or moon, the small body or moon having gravitational forces in terms of an acceleration in a range of 10 −6 and 10 −4 m/s 2 , the reconnaissance rover comprising:
a detector configured to detect at least an environment in front of the reconnaissance rover, in the direction of a trajectory of the reconnaissance rover over a surface of the small body or moon and to provide environmental data based on the detected environment;
a processor configured to update the trajectory based upon the provided environmental data; and

a controller and a driver, which are configured to interact in order to move the reconnaissance rover according to the updated trajectory, wherein the drive unit is designed to apply forces which are in a range between 1 N and 10 −6 N, in order to hold the reconnaissance rover in a hovering state above the surface for a period from 1 minute to 1 hour.

Assignees

• Airbus Defence & Space Gmbh

Inventors

• Johann Ulrich
• Falke Albert
• Ziegler Tobias
• Delchambre Simon
• Hey Franz Georg

Classifications

• G01C21/24

  specially adapted for cosmonautical navigation · CPC title

• B64G1/105 Primary

  Space science · CPC title

• B64G1/66

  Arrangements or adaptations of apparatus or instruments, not otherwise provided for · CPC title

• B64G1/425

  Power storage · CPC title

• B64G1/44

  using radiation, e.g. deployable solar arrays · CPC title