Predictive Drone Control for Interplanetary Exploration

由于缺乏空间遗产和信心，先进的导航和制造技术正在对除航天工业以外的几乎所有行业产生积极影响。我的长期研究愿景是用新的控制技术增强空间产业的能力，这些技术将降低空间系统的成本和设计周期，导致更容易进入的空间产业。我在下一个5年周期的短期目标是开发无人机的预测导航和控制技术，以支持空间探索。机器人空间探索历来使用各种探测工具，包括轨道器、着陆器、漫游车和撞击器/穿透器。然而，我们以高空间分辨率覆盖大片地形的能力仅限于行星漫游车的短距离和缓慢速度。羽翼未丰的太空采矿业有朝一日可能会提供地球上无法获取或获得的有价值的矿物，前提是机器人探险者有足够的覆盖能力来调查和采样土壤。无人机有可能极大地扩大机器人探索的范围，因为它们能够快速有效地覆盖大片区域，近年来商用无人机行业的戏剧性增长就证明了这一点。这项拟议的研究计划将使加拿大航空航天工业拥有部署和控制飞行无人机的技术，作为探索新的外星天体的一种手段。与地球上的无人机不同，外星无人机将面临无数挑战。不可预测的天气、未知的障碍物、不同的空气密度/组成、未绘制的磁场、无法进行人/无人机互动以及缺乏全球定位系统，使得商用无人机解决方案不适合外星使用。我计划开发新的无人机控制技术，在没有任何人参与的情况下适应和预测不断变化的条件。我将设计为星际探索优化的无人机，开发使用分数阶微积分预测非线性动力学和硬件故障的预测控制器，并开发基于漫游车和轨道器测量结果的无人机导航系统。有了这些技术，加拿大航天局及其工业合作伙伴将能够向国际空间探索合作伙伴提供具有成本效益的探测技术。我的学生将使用我的室内无人机试验台来评估我们无人机技术的适用性。这一独特的设施提供了一个安全、可动手的硬件试验台，用于在受控环境中评估无人机设计和控制策略，为高素质人员(HQP)提供了独特而宝贵的培训机会。当通过我的工业研究主席与我强大的工业合作网络相结合时，这些HQP将获得继续进行空间探索技术学术研究所需的技能，或者作为无人机和空间技术的领导者直接进入行业。

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.