A new ground facility for experimental testing of vision-based autonomous planetary landing

This paper presents the design and testing activities of a new experimental facility currently under development at Politecnico di Milano, at the premises of the Aerospace Science and Technology Department (DAER). The purpose of the facility is the testing of novel Guidance, Navigation, and Control algorithms for autonomous landing on planets and small bodies, especially for vision-based relative navigation and hazard detection and avoidance. The design, integration and testing activities of the facility are presented, as well as the suite of GNC algorithms, currently under development at PoliMi-DAER, that are going to be tested. The ultimate goal is to create and bring up to TRL 5 a whole Autonomous Guidance, Navigation and Control chain for autonomous landings.