US 2026/0159256 A1Published application

System and method suitable for controlling landing of a lander to a desired landing location under navigational uncertainty

AssigneeMitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, Inc.

InventorsYana Lishkova, Abraham Vinod, Stefano Di Cairano, Avishai Weiss

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Abstract

The present disclosure provides a lander configured for powered descent landing with uncertainty in a current state of the lander. The lander comprises a memory configured to store a list of desired landing locations on a landing surface, and a plurality of controllable sets. The lander further comprises a motion planner configured to (1) select a controllable set from the plurality of controllable sets based on a current amount of fuel in the lander and a desired time of descent to the landing surface; (2) shift the selected controllable set along a horizontal axis to place its hover point above a landing location selected from the list of desired landing locations; (3) check if a current state of the lander lies within the selected controllable set, and generate a trajectory from the current state of the lander to the hover point of the shifted controllable set.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A lander configured for powered descent landing with uncertainty in a current state of the lander, the lander comprising:

a memory configured to store a list of desired landing locations on a landing surface, and a plurality of controllable sets determined for different amounts of fuel remaining in the lander and a desired time of descent to the landing surface, wherein each controllable set is a polytope defining a volume of states of the lander symmetric around a vertical axis perpendicular to the landing surface with a hover point located on the vertical axis at a predetermined distance above the landing surface as a vertex, and wherein each state includes a location and a velocity of the lander;
a motion planner configured to (1) select a controllable set from the plurality of controllable sets based on a current amount of fuel remaining in the lander and the desired time of descent;
(2) shift the selected controllable set along a horizontal axis to place the hover point above a landing location selected from the list of desired landing locations;
(3) check if a current state of the lander lies within the selected controllable set, and generate a trajectory from the current state of the lander to the hover point of the shifted controllable set;
else (4) select another landing location from the list of desired landing location;
and
a controller configured to control the lander according to the trajectory to navigate the lander to the hover point.

4 more elements

A method for performing powered descent landing with uncertainty in a current state of a lander, the method uses a memory configured to store a list of desired landing locations on a landing surface, and a plurality of controllable sets determined for different amounts of fuel remaining in the lander and a desired time of descent to the landing surface, wherein each controllable set is a polytope defining a volume of states of the lander symmetric around a vertical axis perpendicular to the landing surface with a hover point located on the vertical axis at a predetermined distance above the landing surface as a vertex, and wherein each state includes a location and a velocity of the lander, the method comprising:

selecting a controllable set from the plurality of controllable sets based on a current amount of fuel remaining in the lander and the desired time of descent;
shifting the selected controllable set along a horizontal axis to place the hover point above a landing location selected from the list of desired landing locations;
checking if a current state of the lander lies within the selected controllable set;
generating a trajectory from the current state of the lander to the hover point of the shifted controllable set if the current state of the lander lies within the selected controllable set;
and
controlling the lander according to the trajectory to navigate the lander to the hover point.

3 more elements

A non-transitory computer readable storage medium embodied thereon a program executable by a processor for performing a method for performing powered descent landing with uncertainty in a current state of a lander, the storage medium stores a list of desired landing locations on a landing surface, and a plurality of controllable sets determined for different amounts of fuel remaining in the lander and a desired time of descent to the landing surface, wherein each controllable set is a polytope defining a volume of states of the lander symmetric around a vertical axis perpendicular to the landing surface with a hover point located on the vertical axis at a predetermined distance above the landing surface as a vertex, and wherein each state includes a location and a velocity of the lander, the method comprising:

selecting a controllable set from the plurality of controllable sets based on a current amount of fuel remaining in the lander and the desired time of descent;
shifting the selected controllable set along a horizontal axis to place the hover point above a landing location selected from the list of desired landing locations;
checking if a current state of the lander lies within the selected controllable set;
generating a trajectory from the current state of the lander to the hover point of the shifted controllable set if the current state of the lander lies within the selected controllable set;
and
controlling the lander according to the trajectory to navigate the lander to the hover point.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.