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Vedant kneeling on the concrete floor of a large tent hall, working on the ANAV quadcopter before a test session.
Exhibit 00 Photograph

Record 04

ANAV

An autonomous UAV for a Martian-surface landing scenario that maps hazards from its camera and IMU and picks the safest place to land.

Status
Built
Year
2024–25

Briefing

Problem
Land autonomously on unknown, hazardous ground, as on a Martian surface, with no human input.
What exists today
A built quadcopter with an onboard companion computer, tested in a tent hall and outdoors, and a browser ground dashboard. The mission behaviour below is as described in the project write-up; flight logs are not published here yet.

Objective

An autonomous UAV for a Martian-surface landing scenario, built for an ISRO competition. It takes off on its own, scans the terrain, and searches for a safe landing zone, then approaches and touches down with no human input.

Architecture

Schematic

  1. Sensing

    • Onboard camera
    • IMU

  2. Hazard map

    • Rocks
    • Craters
    • Steep slopes

  3. Site scoring

    • Flatness
    • Clearance
    • Approach margin

  4. Landing

    • Automated approach and touchdown
    • Telemetry and decision logs

The vehicle builds a hazard map from the camera and IMU, scores candidate sites for flatness, clearance, and approach margin, and selects the safest. It records telemetry and its decisions throughout the mission. The public repository is the browser ground dashboard: live telemetry over WebSocket beside the camera stream.

Hardware and firmware

Photograph

The ANAV quadcopter on a desk, front view: printed white and black arms, a stacked companion computer on top, an FS-iA6B receiver, and an orange LiPo pack underneath.
The airframe: printed arms, companion computer stacked on the flight controller.

Photograph

Close-up of the ANAV electronics stack on a lab desk, with USB and power leads taped in place.
The electronics stack during integration.

Bench setup

Photograph

The ANAV quadcopter on grass outdoors, with a teammate's hands adjusting the wiring.
Outdoor session: checks before a test.

Photograph

The ANAV quadcopter on a grass field at night, with a pilot holding a transmitter in the background.
On the field at night, with the pilot on the transmitter.

Status

Built

Links

End of record R-04

Next record R-05 Dhwani-Kavach

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