FIT’s Hector Gutierrez has received NASA support for two research efforts. The Smartphone Video Guidance Sensor is a vision-based sensor that allows for navigation and proximity operations by calculating the relative position and attitude of an illuminated beacon, relative to a coordinate system, attached to a camera on the host spacecraft. Its compact, low-cost hardware and small satellites allow for autonomous rendezvous, capture, and formation flight.

The Contactless Magnetic Joint Actuator addresses three NASA focus areas: dust mitigation with dust tolerant mechanisms and bearings; new sensors and controls for precision landing, surface navigation, hazard detection and avoidance to support spacecraft systems; and precision pointing subsystems for instruments to address the need for autonomous systems and robotics.

• Hector Gutierrez