Autonomous Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy System for Chemical and Mineralogical Designation of Interplanetary Materials

The invention of the laser has pushed the boundaries of technological advancements with its variety of uses. This use case chapter analyses the implementation of an Autonomous Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy System for Chemical and Mineralogical Designation of Interplanetary Materials. In more detail, it highlights all the major components of the development of an autonomous system that maps the material composition of a meteorite sample using the Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy method. In the first chapter all key concepts are presented while offering a short literature survey regarding (calibration-free) Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy. It also highlights the use of the Robot Operating System (ROS) as a tool for the implementation of hardware drivers and autonomy components. Continuing with the details of the implementation, the manuscript focuses on the reference and description of all major hardware components. In the third chapter, the software components of the implementation are discussed. These components include hardware drivers, autonomy capabilities, data visualisation and user interfacing. For interested readers, chapter four offers a quick tutorial on compiling, configuring and running the implemented software. Chapter five summarises the experimental setup and presents results. Finally, this chapter concludes with a quick summary and an overview of the limitations of the implementation along with future work.