ASTROBOTIC TECHNOLOGY INC — National Aeronautics and Space Administration SBIR Phase I: S3

Description

Astrobotic proposes the development and prototyping of a low Size, Weight and Power, Performance, and Cost (SWaP-PC) visual navigation system capable of implementing industry standard visual navigation methods such as Terrain Relative Navigation (TRN) or visual Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM). The system components will provide a compact form factor fitting within approximately 1U (10 x 10 x 10 cm), weight less than 2 kg, and require less than 5W to power, enabling its use in power constrained applications such as CubeSats and SmallSats. The systemrsquo;s interfacing would be designed to allow for flexibility of usage as either a part of a larger navigation solution or a standalone sensor on a small exploration spacecraft. A Xilinx Zynq 7020 System-on-Chip will be integrated into a larger system that includes a camera and IMU. This system will be used to test a version of Astroboticrsquo;s Terrain Relative Navigation (TRN) algorithm modified to utilize Xilinx Zynq 7020 processing capabilities and balance performance with the computational limits of the low SWaP system.