GMV plays a key role in the British space exploration program

GMV is contributing towards the development of the Harwell Robotics Advanced Facility (HRAF), the British site of the European Space Agency. The remit of this facility is to support integration, verification and validation of robotics and autonomy and all associated technology, from prototypes right up to mission level.

The first steps in HRAF implementation have now been taken by means of the HRAF Pilot Project 1. This phase involved the definition and development of necessary core infrastructure and implementation of the simulation of exoplanetary exploration scenarios using long-range rovers. The next phase, under HRAF Pilot 2, aims to phase in new technologies to enable even longer-range navigation. 

In this second phase GMV will be harnessing technology developed in other projects such as SPARTAN (SPAring Robotics Technologies for Autonomous Navigation) for integration of mapping and tracking algorithms. HRAF Pilot 2 also includes field trials with a real algorithm-validating robotic platform while also helping to improve HRAF data archiving for future studies.