Numerical Simulations for Planetary Rovers Safe Navigation and LIDAR Based Localization

Space exploration rovers are designed to investigate the surface of celestial bodies in the Solar System, seeking habitability conditions and biosignatures. These vehicles are equipped with instrumentation and sensors that allow accomplishing in-situ operations. To increase their access capability to harsh environments, onboard systems are included to enable obstacle avoidance and slip prediction that represent fundamental functionalities for safe navigation. This work focuses on the implementation of a method that accurately reproduces the wheel-soil interaction and predicts rovers' performances in different scenarios (e.g., cloddy/drift terrain type, steep terrains). We implemented a 3D model of a rover to simulate its navigation with obstacles on the path. Our estimated trajectory is obtained through the Light Detection And Ranging (LIDAR) data processing, which enables the simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM).