Seeker – Autonomous Long Range Rover Navigation for Remote Exploration
Résumé
Under the umbrella of the ESA StarTiger program, a rapid prototyping study called Seeker was initiated. A range of partners from space and non-space sectors were brought together to develop a prototype Mars rover system capable of autonomously exploring several kilometres of highly representative Mars terrain over a 3 day period. This paper reports on our approach and the final field trials that took place in the Atacama Desert, Chile. Long range navigation and the associated remote rover field trials are a new departure for ESA and this activity therefore represents a novel initiative in this area. The primary focus was to determine if current computer vision and artificial intelligence based software could enable such a capability on Mars, given the current limit of around 200m per Martian day. The paper does not seek to introduce new theoretical techniques or compare various approaches but it offers a unique perspective on their behaviour in a highly representative environment. The final system autonomously navigated 5.05 km in highly representative terrain during one day. This work is part of a wider effort to achieve a step change in autonomous capability for future Mars/Lunar exploration rover platforms.
Domaines
Robotique [cs.RO]
Origine : Fichiers produits par l'(les) auteur(s)
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