Montreal Space Symposium

In the past, the navigation, guidance and control of Earth satellites relied extensively on human intelligence at the ground station instead of computer intelligence on-board the spacecraft. With recent developments in powerful space-qualified microcomputers, model-based design techniques, automatic code generation and failure-detection-identification techniques, there is now a trend to transfer some of the decision-making to the on-board system, transforming the ground operations from detailed task planning to higher-level supervisory activities. In contribution to this trend, the European Space Agency (ESA) initiated the PRoject for On-Board Autonomy (PROBA) series of satellite missions, with the objective to demonstrate the benefits of on-board autonomy, in particular, in the area of Guidance, Navigation and Control (GNC). This presentation will describe the PROBA design and operation philosophy, and highlight the various GNC innovations that were demonstrated in orbit. Then, this talk will present how this design philosophy is extended to the development of autonomous GNC technologies for planetary exploration vehicles and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), such as hazard detection and avoidance, vision-based navigation, real-time mobile mapping, autonomous or pilot-assisted guidance and control for UAV. Ultimately, these technologies are making mobile vehicles intelligent, by increasing their autonomy, performance, reliability and safety while, at the same time, reducing their operational costs.