Lunar Rover Cargo Transport: Mission Concept and Field Test
This work addresses the challenge of achieving high-precision, safe cargo transport and docking for lunar surface operations in complex environments. The study proposes and validates an autonomous navigation approach based on LiDAR-based teach-and-repeat methodology. After an operator constructs a network of safe trajectories through semi-autonomous teleoperation, the rover accurately replays these paths to perform loading and unloading tasks. This approach demonstrates, for the first time in a lunar-analog environment, closed-loop, high-precision cargo transportation capable of rapid deployment and reliable operation. During a two-week field trial at the Canadian Space Agency’s analog terrain site, the system successfully executed autonomous pick-up and delivery under harsh conditions, achieving localization accuracy within the required docking tolerances.