Predictive Drone Control for Interplanetary Exploration

星际探索的预测无人机控制

• 批准号: RGPIN-2019-05363
• 负责人: Ferguson, Philip
• 金额: $ 2.33万
• 依托单位: University of Manitoba
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2020-01-01 至 2021-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=715516
• 关键词: Predictive; Drone; Control; Interplanetary; Exploration

Advanced navigation and manufacturing technologies are positively impacting almost every industry except the space industry due to a lack of space heritage and confidence. My long-term research vision is to empower the space industry with new control technologies that will reduce the cost and design cycle for space systems, leading to a more accessible space industry. My short-term goal in the next 5-year cycle is to develop predictive navigation and control technologies for drones in support of space exploration. Robotic space exploration has historically used a variety of exploration tools, including orbiters, landers, rovers and impactors / penetrators. However, our ability to cover wide areas of terrain at high spatial resolution has been limited to the short range and slow speed of planetary rovers. The fledgling space mining industry could one day provide valuable minerals that are not accessible or available on Earth, provided robotic explorers have adequate coverage capability to survey and sample the soil. Drones have the potential to greatly extend the reach of robotic exploration through their ability to cover vast areas quickly and efficiently, as evidenced by the dramatic growth of the commercial drone industry in recent years. This proposed research program will empower the Canadian aerospace industry with technologies to deploy and control flying drones as a means of exploring new extraterrestrial bodies. Unlike drones for Earth, extraterrestrial drones will face numerous challenges. Unpredictable weather, unknown obstacles, differing air density / composition, unmapped magnetic fields, inability for human/drone interaction and the lack of a global positioning system make commercial drone solutions unsuitable for extra-terrestrial use. I plan to develop new drone control technologies that adapt to and predict changing conditions without any human interaction. I will design drones optimized for interplanetary exploration, develop predictive controllers that use fractional calculus to anticipate nonlinear dynamics and hardware failures and develop a drone navigation system based on measurements from rovers and orbiters. Armed with these technologies, the Canadian Space Agency and their industrial partners will be able to offer cost effective exploration technologies to international space exploration partnerships. My students will evaluate the suitability of our drone technologies using my indoor drone testbed. This unique facility offers a safe, hands-on, hardware testbed to evaluate drone designs and control strategies in a controlled environment, providing a unique and valuable training opportunity for Highly Qualified Personnel (HQP). When combined with my robust network of industrial collaborations through my Industrial Research Chair, these HQP will gain the skills required to continue with academic research in space exploration technologies, or enter industry directly as leaders in drone and space technology.

由于缺乏空间遗产和信心，先进的导航和制造技术正在对几乎所有行业产生积极影响，除了航天行业。我的长期研究愿景是为航天工业提供新的控制技术，这些技术将降低航天系统的成本和设计周期，从而使航天工业更容易进入。在未来5年的周期内，我的短期目标是为无人机开发预测性导航和控制技术，以支持太空探索。