The Draper Scholars Program emphasizes empowering students in 14 key research areas to make the greatest impact. We encourage applicants to align their research with these topics.
Terrain-Relative and Vision-Aided Navigation
Draper’s vision-aided navigation (VAN) and terrain relative navigation (TRN) areas have been developed for terrestrial (air and ground), undersea, space-based orbital and landing applications, and wearable technology. The technology is most useful in GPS-denied and lighting-constrained areas. Advancing this technology includes utilizing new sensors in GPS-denied environments, increasing the robustness and accuracy of the measurements, advancing the simulation systems to test the measurements, and easily integrating the measurements with existing navigation systems.Technical Point of Contact
Research Interests
Autonomy and Robustness of TRN and VAN
- Sensitivity to different lighting conditions for vision-based navigation, and develop methods to improve VAN robustness to changes in lighting conditions and seasonal terrain.
- Increased autonomy for TRN onboard vehicles including optimized database search methods, optimized feature detection, and reduced processing power.
Terrain-relative measurements that are independent of lighting conditions
- Explore other measurements that do not rely on optical and visual sensors, such as IR and LIDAR measurements.
- Focus on developing these measurements in shadowed or low-light scenarios, such as at night terrestrially, undersea, in high-contrasting shadows such as at the moon, and at small bodies.
Wearable sensors and surface navigation
- Expand our TRN technology to navigate on the surface of Earth or another planetary body such as the Moon and Mars. Focus on wearable tech for humans and rovers.
Have Any Questions?
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