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Enhanced robotic surface exploration is a fundamental MEPAT (Mars Exploration Program Advanced Technologies) goal for Mars exploration technology development because many surface-investigation goals require traversing significant distances in widely varying terrain conditions. SILVRCLAW (stowable, inflatable, large, vectran, rigidizable, cold-resistant, lightweight, all-terrain wheel) is an inflatable,...
NASA's Mars exploration rovers' (MER) onboard mobility flight software was designed to provide robust and flexible operation. The MER vehicles can be commanded directly, or given autonomous control over multiple aspects of mobility: which motions to drive, measurement of actual motion, terrain interpretation, even the selection of targets of interest (although this mode remains largely underused)...
We have developed a highly accurate support vector machine (SVM) based detector capable of identifying jarosite (K, Na, H3O)Fe 3 (SO4)2(OH)6) in the visible/NIR (350-2500 nm) spectra of both laboratory specimens and rocks in Mars analogue field environments. To keep the computational complexity of the detector to a minimum, we restricted our design to an SVM with a linear kernel and a small number...
The Mars Sample Return mission is being planned to return samples of Martian rock, soil, and atmosphere to Earth for scientific analysis. A Mars ascent vehicle (MAV) will be brought to the Martian surface within a lander; receive samples delivered by a mobile surface vehicle; and launch the samples into Mars orbit for return to Earth. The MAV is being designed as a two-stage solid-fuel vehicle with...
The successful operation of unmanned air vehicles requires software with a high degree of autonomy. Only if high level functions can be carried out without human control and intervention can complex missions, in a changing and potentially unknown environment, be carried out successfully. Autonomy software is highly mission and safety critical: failures, caused by flaws in the software cannot only...
Low flying, small endurance UAVs are well-suited for region coverage over airbases or in urban zones since they are cheap, highly maneuverable and expendable. In this paper we consider the problem of minimizing the time needed to cover the region of interest, a contiguous rectilinear polygonal workspace, Pscr, using eta UAVs. Our approach is based on partitioning Pscr into eta interior-disjoint polygons,...
ANTS (autonomous nano technology swarm) SMART (super miniaturized addressable reconfigurable technology) architectures were initiated at the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) to develop new kinds of robotic structures capable of: goal-oriented motion, changing its form to optimize its function, adapting to new environmental demands, and/or repairing itself. To begin to explore the possibilities of...
Future Mars missions such as the Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission may benefit from core sample acquisition from a low-mass rover where the rover cannot be assumed to be stationary during a coring operation. Manipulation from Mars rovers is currently done under the assumption that the rover acts as a stationary, stable platform for the arm. An MSR mission scenario with a low-mass rover has been developed...
Saturn's moon Titan promises insight into numerous key scientific questions, many of which can be investigated only by in situ exploration of its surface and atmosphere. This paper presents research on a vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) vehicle designed to conduct a scientific investigation of Titan's atmosphere, clouds, haze, surface, and any possible oceans. Multiple options for vertical takeoff...
Single cycle instrument placement (SCIP) could dramatically increase the speed of various planetary rover operations. JPL is validating SCIP for use on its upcoming Mars Science Laboratory mission. Two major sources of error in the implementation submitted for validation were imprecision in selecting a distant target and error introduced while handing the target off to the rover's hazard cameras (hazcams)...
Some of the most scientifically interesting terrain is among the most inaccessible, presenting problems for all mobility strategies. Lava flows, for example, can have structure at all scale sizes rendering traversal via appendage or wheel difficult at best. NASA researchers have been developing an innovative mechanical structure that provides mobility in terrain unnavigable by wheeled or even legged...
This paper presents a vision of humanoid robots as human's key partners in future space exploration, in particular for construction, maintenance/repair and operation of lunar/planetary habitats, bases and settlements. It integrates this vision with the recent plans for human and robotic exploration, aligning a set of milestones for operational capability of humanoids with the schedule for the next...
The paper proposes a solution to the problem of coordinated control of multiple unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) to ensure collision-free maneuvers under strict spatial and temporal constraints. The solution proposed relies on the decoupling of space and time in the problem formulation. First, a set of feasible trajectories are generated for all UAVs using a new direct method of optimal control that takes...
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