A Zupt-Based Method for Astronaut Navigation on Planetary Surface and Performance Evaluation under Different Locomotion Patterns

Abstract

In this research, we develop a Zero Velocity Update (ZUPT) based method for astronaut navigation and evaluate its performance under different locomotion patterns. In this ZUPT based dead-reckoning, the position drift of IMU is corrected using the constraint that the instantaneous velocity is zero when static state is automatically detected. A series of field experiments have been performed on terrains of different slopes and hardness in an urban park and a desert under different locomotion patterns, such as walking and hopping. The experimental results show that the positioning accuracy of the developed ZUPT based dead-reckoning is 1.5 %–2.3 % under different locomotion patterns, demonstrating the potential of ZUPT for astronaut navigation.