NASA X-Hab 2026: Autonomous Rover Charging for Planetary Surfaces

This project proposal was submitted to NASA but not selected for funding. It was not continued past the proposal stage.

Overview

In 2025, the Aurora Robotics Lab at the University of Alaska Fairbanks proposed an autonomous rover charging system for the NASA 2026 Moon to Mars X-Hab Academic Innovation Challenge. The project aimed to develop a robust, dust-tolerant, metal-to-metal charging interface for planetary rovers on the Moon or Mars. The system would have enabled fully autonomous docking and recharging, with goals of 1kW continuous power delivery and tolerance to lunar/Martian dust and misalignment.

Project Vision

• Vision: Enable autonomous rovers to operate persistently across planetary surfaces by removing human dependence for recharging.
• Mission: Design a reliable, ambidextrous, high-power charging interface for autonomous robots.

System Concept

The proposed system included:

• A charging station with spring-loaded metal contacts and visual fiducial markers (e.g., AprilTags).
• A rover with vision-based alignment and mechanical docking capability.
• Metal-to-metal couplers designed for low resistance, dust tolerance, and mechanical repeatability (target: 1000+ cycles).

The proposal considered dust immersion, electrical arcing, and wear, bringing forward advantages over inductive methods in efficiency and power density.

Legacy and Prior Work

This proposal built on earlier work by Aurora Robotics, including:

• LAYLA Charger (2014–2020): A magnetic drive-up robot charging box used in multi-year tests.
• NASA Break the Ice (2020–2023): Semi-autonomous mining robot development and tool coupler research.
• X-Hab 2025 Project: Modular robotic construction using self-aligning steel L-Trusses and the Excahauler robot.

Outcome

The proposal was not accepted for X-Hab 2026 funding, and no further work was pursued on this project. However, the autonomous charging concept remains of interest for future lunar operations and research efforts.

Proposed Team

• PI: Dr. Orion Lawlor
• Lead Student: Andrew Mattson (CS BS/MS)
• Team Members:
• Elliott Madsen (ME BS)
• Delano Horner (ME BS)
• Kory Lamme (ME BS)
• Allison Bergt (CS BS)
• Artyom Kesler (CS BS)
• Brandon Kallenback (CE BS).