Extended Navigation Capabilities for a Future Mars Science Helicopter Concept

This paper introduces an autonomous navigation system suitable for supporting a future Mars Science Helicopter concept. This mission concept requires low-drift localization to reach science targets far apart from each other on the surface of Mars. Our modular state estimator achieves this through range, solar and Visual-Inertial Odometry (VIO). We propose a novel range update model to constrain visual-inertial scale drift in the absence of motion excitation using a single-point static laser range finder, that is designed to work over unknown terrain topography. We also develop a sun sensor measurement model to constrain VIO yaw drift. Solar VIO performance is evaluated in a simulation environment in a Monte Carlo analysis. Range-VIO is demonstrated in flight in real time on 1 core of a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor, which is the successor of the NASA's Mars Helicopter flight processor.