Exploration Of Polar Regions Research Articles

The covariance matrix transformation method in all-earth integrated navigation considering coordinate frame conversion

In the exploration of polar regions, navigation is one of the most important issues to be resolved. To avoid the limitations of a single navigation coordinate frame, navigation systems usually use different navigation coordinate frames in polar and nonpolar regions, such as the north-oriented geographic frame and the grid frame. However, the error states and covariance matrix are related to the definition of the navigation coordinate frame, since coordinate frame conversion will cause overshoot of the integrated navigation Kalman filter and error discontinuity. To solve this problem, the transformation relationship of error states defined in different frames is deduced, whereby the covariance matrix transformation relationship is also analyzed. On this basis, covariance transformation-based open-loop and closed-loop Kalman filter integrated navigation algorithms are proposed. The effectiveness of the algorithms is verified by flight tests with a rotational strapdown inertial navigation system/global navigation satellite system integrated navigation system.

A Polar Rover for Large-Scale Scientific Surveys: Design, Implementation and Field Test Results

Exploration of polar regions is of great importance to scientific research. Unfortunately, due to the harsh environment, most of the regions on the Antarctic continent are still unreachable for humankind. Therefore, in 2011, the Chinese National Antarctic Research Expedition (CHINARE) launched a project to design a rover to conduct large-scale scientific surveys on the Antarctic. The main challenges for the rover are twofold: one is the mobility, i.e., how to make a rover that could survive the harsh environment and safely move on the uneven, icy and snowy terrain; the other is the autonomy, in that the robot should be able to move at a relatively high speed with little or no human intervention so that it can explore a large region in a limit time interval under the communication constraints. In this paper, the corresponding techniques, especially the polar rover's design and autonomous navigation algorithms, are introduced in detail. Subsequently, an experimental report of the fields tests on the Antarctic is given to show some preliminary evaluation of the rover. Finally, experiences and existing challenging problems are summarized.