Robot SLAM Engine
Onboard SLAM Engine for Robot Self-Localization
The onboard SLAM engine is a navigation processing system hosted on radiation-hardened NOR flash and a GPU accelerator, executing visual, LIDAR, and inertial measurement unit sensor fusion for surface robotics. Drawing 5 W of power, the engine generates per-robot pose updates at 10 Hz with a 1-meter global consistency baseline. In the lunar environment lacking satellite navigation networks, the software maintains long-mission map convergence across extended traverses, feeding authenticated localization updates into a coordinated global topological map over a 20-year operational lifetime.
Onboard SLAM engine running per-robot visual + LIDAR + IMU fusion for self-localization on lunar surface.
Purpose
Onboard SLAM engine running per-robot visual + LIDAR + IMU fusion for self-localization on lunar surface.
Context
Child of L2-ROB-NAV within the Lunar Ark system
Principles
- ▸Visual + LIDAR + IMU sensor fusion
- ▸Per L3-NAV-LOC-SLAM common implementation
- ▸Per-robot pose updates at 10 Hz
- ▸Coordinated with L3-NAV-MAP-TOPO global map
- ▸Long-mission SLAM evolution
Typical implementations
- ▸ROS SLAM packages (LIO-SAM, ORB-SLAM)
- ▸NASA rover SLAM heritage
- ▸Visual SLAM lunar surface (arXiv 2603.17229)
Lunar considerations
- ▸Per-robot deployment of shared algorithm
- ▸Long-mission map convergence
- ▸Authenticated updates
Specifications
Functional
| primary function | Onboard SLAM engine running per-robot visual + LIDAR + IMU fusion for self-localization on lunar surface. |
| update rate hz | 10 |
| global consistency m | 1 |
Physical
| mass kg | 0 |
| materials | Code on rad-hard NOR flash + GPU accelerator |
| vacuum compatibility | True |
Operational
| power consumption w | 5 |
| thermal range c | -40, 70 |
| lifetime years | 20 |
| mtbf hours | 100000 |
Interfaces
Provides
- Per-robot pose
- Aggregated robot positions
Requires
- Global map + reference frames
Cite this entry
Lunar Ark Codex. "Robot SLAM Engine" (L3-ROB-NAV-SLAM). Retrieved 10 September 2026, from https://lunarark.com/entry/L3-ROB-NAV-SLAM
Licensed CC-BY-SA 4.0. You may reuse and adapt this entry with attribution, under the same licence.