[Paper Review] Lunar Rover Cargo Transport: Mission Concept and Field Test

Alexander Krawciw, Nicolas A. Olmedo+4 more|arXiv (Cornell University)|Jan 6, 2026

Soil Mechanics and Vehicle Dynamics0 citations

TL;DR

This paper presents a mission concept and field test validating a lidar teach-and-repeat autonomous pipeline to transport cargo with a lunar-analog rover under challenging conditions. The system achieves precise docking and cargo handling in a simulated lunar mission.

ABSTRACT

In future operations on the lunar surface, automated vehicles will be required to transport cargo between known locations. Such vehicles must be able to navigate precisely in safe regions to avoid natural hazards, human-constructed infrastructure, and dangerous dark shadows. Rovers must be able to park their cargo autonomously within a small tolerance to achieve a successful pickup and delivery. In this field test, Lidar Teach and Repeat provides an ideal autonomy solution for transporting cargo in this way. A one-tonne path-to-flight rover was driven in a semi-autonomous remote-control mode to create a network of safe paths. Once the route was taught, the rover immediately repeated the entire network of paths autonomously while carrying cargo. The closed-loop performance is accurate enough to align the vehicle to the cargo and pick it up. This field report describes a two-week deployment at the Canadian Space Agency's Analogue Terrain, culminating in a simulated lunar operation to evaluate the system's capabilities. Successful cargo collection and delivery were demonstrated in harsh environmental conditions.

Motivation & Objective

• Motivate autonomous cargo transport on the Moon to move supplies between landers and habitats.
• Evaluate lidar teach-and-repeat (LT&R) as an autonomy solution for precise routing with cargo.
• Integrate a cargo system that can latch and unload autonomously or semi-autonomously in a lunar analog.

Proposed method

• Use Lidar Teach and Repeat to create and repeat a network of safe paths between landers and habitats.
• Employ a MPC-based control loop with lidar odometry for precise path tracking.
• Implement a cargo mechanism with four telescopic legs and latching system to enable autonomous unloading and docking.
• Conduct a field test on CSA’s Analogue Terrain with reduced bandwidth and sun-gun illumination to mimic lunar south-pole conditions.
• Operate in three stages: semi-autonomous teach, autonomous reverse, and autonomous forward repetition.

Experimental results

Research questions

• RQ1 Can LT&R provide reliable long-range autonomy for cargo transport on the Moon?
• RQ2 What accuracy and timing are achievable for docking and cargo handoff under lunar-analog lighting and wind conditions?
• RQ3 How does autonomous repetition compare to semi-autonomous teaching in terms of path consistency and mission duration?
• RQ4 What are the practical challenges of cargo loading/unloading and precise alignment in a remote lunar scenario?

Key findings

• The closed-loop LT&R approach achieves enough accuracy to align the rover to the cargo for latch and pickup.
• The field test demonstrated successful cargo collection and delivery in harsh environmental conditions.
• A two-week CSA Analogue Terrain deployment culminated in a simulated lunar operation validating the concept.
• Semi-autonomous teaching followed by autonomous repeats enabled long-route traversal with cargo on board.