The Robotics Institute

Carnegie Mellon Robotics Institute

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Abstract

Future Mars rovers will have the ability to autonomously navigate for distances of kilometers. In one sol a traverse may take a rover into unexplored areas beyond its local horizon. Naturally, scientists cannot specify particular targets for the rover in an area they have not yet seen. This paper analyzes what they can specify: priorities that provide the rover with enough information to autonomously select science targets using its onboard sensing. Several autonomous science operational modes and priority types are discussed. We also introduce a science priority language. A team of scientists was asked to use the language in specifying targets for a tele-operated rover, and qualitative results are reported.

Keywords

Mobile Robotics, Autonomous Science, Space Robotics

Notes

Sponsor: NASA ASTEP

Grant ID: NNG0-4GB66G and NAG5-12890

Associated Center(s) / Consortia: Field Robotics Center

Associated Project(s): Science Autonomy

Number of pages: 9

Text Reference

Trey Smith, Scott Niekum, David R. Thompson, and David Wettergreen, "Concepts for Science Autonomy During Robotic Traverse and Survey," IEEE Aerospace Conference Proceedings, Big Sky Montana, March, 2005.

BibTeX Reference

@inproceedings{Smith_2005_4973,
   author = "Trey Smith and Scott Niekum and David R Thompson and David Wettergreen",
   title = "Concepts for Science Autonomy During Robotic Traverse and Survey",
   booktitle = "IEEE Aerospace Conference Proceedings, Big Sky Montana",
   month = "March",
   year = "2005",
}

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