SmartTopo Intelligent Real-Time Topographic Information Collection System

The SmartTopo SBIR phase I program resulted in the creation of the first technology designed to provide robotic vehicles with the ability to "learn and remember" the terrain over which they travel. The SmartTopo software system is designed to be portable and robust so that it can be used by NASA in a variety of general and embedded applications. It will be used in robotic inspection of spacecraft on-orbit, making re-entry safer for manned spacecraft. It will also improve the safety of air travel by producing a new type of aircraft altimeter which will tell the pilot the true position of the aircraft above the ground. A vehicle (aircraft, spacecraft, satellite, planetary rover or submersible) is sent forth with an internal digital map of the topography of an area to explore. As exploration proceeds sensors (video cameras for example) on the explorer will collect data as always, but now the SmartTopo software will process the data and update the original digital map data in real time, resulting in a higher resolution topographic model of the surface that it has surveyed. RIS has developed and demonstrated the key elements of this technology during Phase I.