Exploded view of the UniPilot module, with hardware, sensing, and compute components highlighted, alongside an image of the aerial platform that integrates the module in a process tank environment. Abstract-- This paper presents UniPilot, a compact hardware-software autonomy payload that can be integrated across diverse robot embodiments to enable autonomous operation in GPS-denied environments. The system integrates a multi-modal sensing suite including LiDAR, radar, vision, and inertial sensing for robust operation in conditions where uni-modal approaches may fail. UniPilot runs a complete autonomy software comprising multi-modal perception, exploration and inspection path planning, and learning-based navigation policies. The payload provides robust localization, mapping, planning, and safety and control capabilities in a single unit that can be deployed across a wide range of platforms. A large number of experiments are conducted across diverse environments and on a variety of robot platforms to validate the mapping, planning, and safe navigation capabilities enabled by the payload. I. INTRODUCTION With the progressing rise of autonomy, it becomes increasingly more important to be able to test a wide variety of complex methods and systems on easily re-creatable platforms. Especially of interest is to investigate and demonstrate a method's generality across different robot embodiments. Furthermore, the demand for autonomy in different robot actualization and in varied environments necessitates flexibility at the core of this design philosophy.

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This article provides an overview of the nature and role of autonomy for space exploration, with a bias in focus towards describing the relevance of AI technologies. It explores the range of autonomous behavior that is relevant and useful in space exploration and illustrates the range of possible behaviors by presenting four case studies in space-exploration systems, each differing from the others in the degree of autonomy exemplified. Three core requirements are defined for autonomous space systems, and the architectures for integrating capabilities into an autonomous system are described. The article concludes with a discussion of the challenges that are faced currently in developing and deploying autonomy technologies for space. As NASA and other space agencies around the world formulate and deploy missions to return to the moon and explore Mars and beyond, the realization is emerging that smarter mobile systems that are themselves instruments of knowledge and understanding must be ...

This article provides an overview of the nature and role of autonomy for space exploration, with a bias in focus towards describing the relevance of AI technologies. It explores the range of autonomous behavior that is relevant and useful in space exploration and illustrates the range of possible behaviors by presenting four case studies in space-exploration systems, each differing from the others in the degree of autonomy exemplified. Three core requirements are defined for autonomous space systems, and the architectures for integrating capabilities into an autonomous system are described. The article concludes with a discussion of the challenges that are faced currently in developing and deploying autonomy technologies for space.