Evaluation of a ground region for landing a robot

Inventors

Otenti, Nathan • Chung, Joseph • Saunders, Jeffery

Assignees

Aurora Flight Sciences Corp

Abstract

A method of supporting robot(s) landing within a ground region is provided. The method includes accessing a map in which the ground region is tessellated into cells covering respective areas of the ground region. Each cell is classified as feasible to indicate a respective area is feasible for landing, or infeasible to indicate the respective area is infeasible for landing. The map is searched for clusters of adjoining cells that are classified as feasible, covering clusters of adjoining areas that define sub-regions within the ground region that are feasible for landing. The sub-regions are ranked according to a cost metric, and one of the sub-regions is selected according to the ranking. A geographic position of the selected sub-region is then output for use in at least one of guidance, navigation or control of the robot(s) to land at the selected sub-region within the ground region.

Core Innovation

The invention is an autonomous-robot mission support system and method for executing a mission within a ground region by selecting a feasible landing sub-region. It accesses a map in which the ground region is tessellated into cells, where each cell is classified as feasible for landing or infeasible for landing, and the feasible cells are represented as first values and the infeasible cells are represented as second values within a first matrix.

The invention searches the map for clusters of adjoining cells that are classified as feasible, where the clusters define sub-regions that are feasible for landing. The clusters identified with only the first values are expressed as sub-matrices, and a second matrix corresponding to the first matrix is initialized. The first matrix is traversed beginning at a top left-most element, and for each element having the first value a corresponding element in the second matrix is updated.

The invention ranks the sub-regions according to a cost metric and selects one of the sub-regions according to the ranking as a selected sub-region. It further categorizes the sub-regions into categories and ranks them according to an order of priority of the categories, including category A with one or more sub-regions having a prepared landing site, category B with one or more sub-regions having a target size or a target range without a prepared landing site, category C with one or more sub-regions having a range of sizes outside the target size or target range without a prepared landing site, and category D with one or more sub-regions being invalid. The selected sub-region is communicated to a mission management system of at least one robot to direct the robot to the selected sub-region within the ground region.

Claims Coverage

The partial content includes two independent claims, a system claim and a method claim, that share the same core pipeline of tessellation into feasible and infeasible cells, formation of feasible-cell clusters into sub-regions via sub-matrices and a second matrix traversal, and selection of a ranked sub-region communicated to robot mission management. Each independent claim further includes categorical prioritization and cost-metric ranking of sub-regions.

Across the independent system and method claims, the claim coverage is centered on generating a feasible-infeasible landing map by tessellating the ground region, extracting feasible clusters as sub-matrices and square sub-matrices via a second matrix traversal, ranking candidate sub-regions by a cost metric, and selecting and communicating a selected sub-region to a robot mission management system, with additional categorical prioritization using categories A through D.

Stated Advantages

Documented Applications