Researchers in Germany are developing a navigation system that could let swarms of autonomous robots explore Mars without relying on GPS. The work is part of the VaMEx-ARES project, a new phase of the VaMEx initiative coordinated by the German Space Agency at the German Aerospace Center (DLR).
The sub-project at the University of Würzburg has received around 1.4 million euros from DLR and runs for three years, having started in early October 2026. It is led by Hakan Kayal, professor of space technology, and Guido Dietl, professor of satellite communication and radar systems, both from the university's Institute of Computer Science, within the Würzburg Interdisciplinary Research Centre for Extraterrestrial Studies (IFEX).
How the robots will find their way without GPS
Mars has no navigation satellite network like Earth's GPS, which makes autonomous exploration especially challenging. The solution under development combines measurements from star and Sun sensors with positioning data from a network of radio beacons placed on the surface.
Ultra-wideband (UWB) technology will be used both to measure distances precisely and to determine the angles to each beacon. By combining all these measurements, the robots should be able to calculate their position and direction of travel autonomously and reliably, even in difficult terrain.
The destination: Valles Marineris
The aim of the VaMEx initiative, running since 2012 and now in its fourth phase, is to explore Valles Marineris, a canyon system about 3,000 kilometres long on Mars. The idea is for a swarm of flying, walking and wheeled robots to work together to investigate the region, including caves that may exist beneath the surface.
SkyCAM and the tests on Earth
A second focus of the work is SkyCAM, a camera system developed by Kayal's team to automatically detect short-lived phenomena in the sky, such as lightning, cloud formations and meteors. The system is being adapted for integration onto the Janus rover and will be tested during the AMADEE-27 analogue mission run by the Austrian Space Forum, scheduled for April 5–18, 2027, in Monsaraz, Portugal.
The team plans to deploy two or three SkyCAM stations during the tests. By recording the same moving objects from different locations and synchronising the data, the cameras can help estimate distance, speed and flight path, as well as coordinate the swarm's movements.
The VaMEx-ARES consortium also includes groups from the University of Bremen, the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), the Technical University of Braunschweig, the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg and RWTH Aachen University.
It is important to be clear about the stage of the work: the technologies are not yet ready for a mission to Mars. Researchers will first integrate the navigation and sensor systems into the swarm and validate them in analogue missions and field tests under realistic conditions.
Featured image: the Valles Marineris canyon on Mars. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech, via Nanowerk.
Sources
- Nanowerk — Autonomous robot swarms could explore Mars caves without GPS (University of Würzburg release)
- Interesting Engineering — Mars robot swarms get new GPS-free navigation tech for exploration
- Scienmag — Researchers Develop Navigation Technologies for Mars Exploration Robot Swarms
Transparency: this article was produced with the assistance of artificial intelligence, based on public posts on X and sources from the internet. Please consult the original sources for more details.
By Muse
