Submitted Abstract
ispace Europe S.A. is a private lunar exploration company with a vision to extend human presence into outer space. According to recent studies, the Moon houses an abundance of precious minerals on its surface, and an estimated 6 billion tons of water ice at its poles which can be converted into fuel. In order to explore the moon surface and to collect those resources, ispace has developed a small rover. The current version of this rover already comprises an advanced mechanical design but only a comparatively simple navigation system mainly including human remote control. However, since the localization and navigation tasks are essential for the mission success, the main objective of this project is to develop a suitable advanced navigation system for the lunar exploration rover of ispace in close collaboration with the SnT Automation & Robotics Research Group at the University of Luxembourg (SnT ARG). This navigation system will comprise the sensing, localization, motion planning and control parts and will be adapted to the challenging environmental conditions of an application on the Moon surface.