Butler Hine

Bioinspired engineering of exploration systems: a horizon sensor/attitude reference system based on the dragonfly Ocelli for Mars exploration applications

Bioinspired engineering of exploration systems (BEES) is a fast emerging new discipline. It focuses on distilling the principles found in successful, nature-tested mechanisms of specific crucial functions that are hard to accomplish by conventional methods, but are accomplished rather deftly in nature by biological organisms. The intent is not just to mimic operational mechanisms found in a specific biological organism but to imbibe the salient principles from a variety of diverse organisms for the desired crucial function. Thereby, we can build exploration systems that have specific capabilities endowed beyond nature, as they will possess a mix of the best nature-tested mechanisms for each particular function. Insects (for example, honey bees and dragonflies) cope remarkably well with their world, despite possessing a brain that carries less than 0.01% as many neurons as ours does. Although most insects have immobile eyes, fixed focus optics, and lack stereo vision, they use a number of ingenious strategies for perceiving their world in three dimensions and navigating successfully in it. We are distilling some of these insect-inspired strategies for utilizing optical cues to obtain unique solutions to navigation, hazard avoidance, altitude hold, stable flight, terrain following, and smooth deployment of payload. Such functionality can enable access to otherwise unreachable exploration sites for much sought-after data. A BEES approach to developing autonomous dflight systems, particularly in small scale, can thus have a tremendous impact on autonomous airborne navigation of these biomorphic flyers particularly for planetary exploration missions, for example, to Mars which offer unique challenges due to its thin atmosphere, low gravity, and lack of magnetic field. Incorporating these success strategies of bioinspired navigation into biomorphic sensors such as the horizon sensor described herein fulfills for the first time the requirements of a variety of potential future Mars exploration applications described in this paper. Specifically we have obtained lightweight (similar to6 g), low power (<40 mW), and robust autonomous horizon sensing for flight stabilization based on distilling the principles of the dragonfly ocelli. Such levels of miniaturization of navigation sensors are essential to enable biomorphic microflyers (< 1 kg) that can be deployed in large numbers for distributed measurements. In this paper we present the first experimental test results of a biomorphic flyer platform with an embedded biomorphic ocellus (the dragonfly-inspired horizon sensor/attitude reference system). These results from the novel hardware implementation of a horizon sensor demonstrate the advantage of our approach in adapting principles proven successful in nature to accomplish navigation for Mars exploration

VEVI: A Virtual Environment Teleoperations Interface for Planetary Exploration

Remotely operating complex robotic mechanisms in unstructured natural environments is difficult at best. When the communications time delay is large, as for a Mars exploration rover operated from Earth, the difficulties become enormous. Conventional approaches, such as rate control of the rover actuators, are too inefficient and risky. The Intelligent Mechanisms Laboratory at the NASA Ames Research Center has developed over the past four years an architecture for operating science exploration robots in the presence of large communications time delays. The operator interface of this system is called the Virtual Environment Vehicle Interface (VEVI), and draws heavily on Virtual Environment (or Virtual Reality) technology. This paper describes the current operational version of VEVI, which we refer to as version 2.0. In this paper we will describe the VEVI design philosophy and implementation, and will describe some past examples of its use in field science exploration missions.

Antarctic undersea exploration using a robotic submarine with a telepresence user interface

This field experiment used a telepresence-controlled, remotely operated underwater vehicle to study sea-floor ecology in Antarctica. In using environmental data to create the virtual reality model in near real-time, this experiment represents the first combined use of telepresence and virtual reality for scientific purposes.

Operator Interfaces and Network-Based Participation for Dante II

Dante II, an eight-legged walking robot developed by the Dante project, explored the active volcanic crater of Mount Spurr in July 1994. In this paper, we describe the operator interfaces and the network-based participation methods used during the Dante II mission. Both virtual environment and multi-modal operator interfaces provided mission support for supervised control of Dante II. Network-based participation methods including message communications, satellite transmission, and a WorldWideWeb server enabled remote science and public interaction. We believe that these human-machine interfaces represent a significant advance in robotic technologies for exploration.

Bioinspired engineering of exploration systems for NASA and DoD

A new approach called bioinspired engineering of exploration systems (BEES) and its value for solving pressing NASA and DoD needs are described. Insects (for example honeybees and dragonflies) cope remarkably well with their world, despite possessing a brain containing less than 0.01 as many neurons as the human brain. Although most insects have immobile eyes with fixed focus optics and lack stereo vision, they use a number of ingenious, computationally simple strategies for perceiving their world in three dimensions and navigating successfully within it. We are distilling selected insect-inspired strategies to obtain novel solutions for navigation, hazard avoidance, altitude hold, stable flight, terrain following, and gentle deployment of payload. Such functionality provides potential solutions for future autonomous robotic space and planetary explorers. A BEES approach to developing lightweight low-power autonomous flight systems should be useful for flight control of such biomorphic flyers for both NASA and DoD needs. Recent biological studies of mammalian retinas confirm that representations of multiple features of the visual world are systematically parsed and processed in parallel. Features are mapped to a stack of cellular strata within the retina. Each of these representations can be efficiently modeled in semiconductor cellular nonlinear network (CNN) chips. We describe recent breakthroughs in exploring the feasibility of the unique blending of insect strategies of navigation with mammalian visual search, pattern recognition, and image understanding into hybrid biomorphic flyers for future planetary and terrestrial applications. We describe a few future mission scenarios for Mars exploration, uniquely enabled by these newly developed biomorphic flyers.

Effects and correction of magneto-optic spatial light modulator phase errors in an optical correlator

Here we study the optical phase errors introduced into an optical correlator by the input and filter plane magneto-optic spatial light modulators. We measure and characterize the magnitude of these phase errors, evaluate their effects on the correlation results, and present a means of correction by a design modification of the binary phase-only optical-filter function. The efficacy of the phase-correction technique is quantified and is found to restore the correlation characteristics to those obtained in the absence of errors, to a high degree. The phase errors of other correlator system elements are also discussed and treated in a similar fashion.

The Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer mission

The Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) is a Lunar science orbiter mission currently under development to address the goals of the National Research Council decadal surveys and the recent “Scientific Context for Exploration of the Moon” (SCEM) [1] report to study the pristine state of the lunar atmosphere and dust environment prior to significant human activities.12 LADEE will determine the composition of the lunar atmosphere and investigate the processes that control its distribution and variability, including sources, sinks, and surface interactions. LADEE will also determine whether dust is present in the lunar exosphere, and reveal the processes that contribute to its sources and variability. These investigations are relevant to our understanding of surface boundary exospheres and dust processes throughout the solar system, address questions regarding the origin and evolution of lunar volatiles, and have potential implications for future exploration activities. The LADEE science instruments include a neutral mass spectrometer, ultraviolet spectrometer, and dust sensor. LADEE will also fly a laser communications system technology demonstration that could provide a building block for future space communications architectures. LADEE is an important component in NASAs portfolio of near-term lunar missions, addressing objectives that are currently not covered by other U.S. or international efforts, and whose observations must be conducted before large-scale human or robotic activities irrevocably perturb the tenuous and fragile lunar atmosphere. LADEE will also demonstrate the effectiveness of a low-cost, rapid-development program utilizing a modular bus design launched on the new Minotaur V launch vehicle. Once proven, this capability could enable future lunar missions in a highly cost constrained environment. This paper describes the LADEE objectives, mission design, and technical approach.

Review: The Benefits and Applications of Bioinspired Flight Capabilities

This paper addresses the challenges of flight on Mars that at this time have the same element of novelty as flight on Earth itself was a novelty in the Kitty Hawk era almost 100 years ago, details the scientific need for such flyers, highlights the bioinspired engineering of exploration systems (BEES) flyer development and finally describes a few viable mission architecture options that allow reliable data return from the BEES flyers using the limited telecom infrastructure that can be made available with a lander base to orbiter combination on Mars. Our recent developments using inspiration from biology that are enabling the pathway to demonstrate flight capability for Mars exploration are described. These developments hold substantial spin-offs for a variety of applications both for NASA and DoD. Unmanned exploration to date suggests that Mars once had abundant liquid water (considered essential for life as we know it). It is not clear what transpired on the Martian climate to have turned the planet into the desert that it is today. Developing a comprehensive understanding of the past and present climatic events for Mars may provide important information relevant to the future of our own planet. Such exploration missions are enabled using the BEES technology.

Telepresence control of mobile robots - Kilauea Marsokhod experiment

Mobile robots will be a key requirement for future exploration of Mars. Mobility will be required to achieve the goals of the Mars Surveyor program and will be critical for science operations on Mars during future human missions. We describe here a field experiment to simulate science operations of a planetary surface rover on Mars and on the Moon. The Marsokhod planetary surface rover was deployed on Kilauea Volcano HI in February 1995 and operated via satellite communications from NASA Ames Research Center. Simulations of teleoperated rover missions on Mars and on the Moon were performed for three days each. During the simulations, science teams analyzed data from the Marsokhod and deduced the geologic setting and history of the field site. In the Mars simulation, the rover traversed 800 m of terrain, made observations at 8 science stations, and obtained several hundred images. We estimate that performing the same operation on Mars would require about 30 days. In the Lunar simulation, the rover was operated in real time with a continuous stereo video image transmission, and traversed 1.2 km in 15 hours of operation. The experiments show that mobile robots can be used to successfully perform field geology on other planets. We argue that rovers are needed for the Surveyor program to Mars which can traverse >10 km during a mission duration of one year. This capability could be achieved by cooperating with the Russians and using the Marsokhod rover.

Arcus: the x-ray grating spectrometer explorer

Arcus will be proposed to the NASA Explorer program as a free-flying satellite mission that will enable high-resolution soft X-ray spectroscopy (8-50) with unprecedented sensitivity – effective areas of >500 sq cm and spectral resolution >2500. The Arcus key science goals are (1) to determine how baryons cycle in and out of galaxies by measuring the effects of structure formation imprinted upon the hot gas that is predicted to lie in extended halos around galaxies, groups, and clusters, (2) to determine how black holes influence their surroundings by tracing the propagation of out-flowing mass, energy and momentum from the vicinity of the black hole out to large scales and (3) to understand how accretion forms and evolves stars and circumstellar disks by observing hot infalling and outflowing gas in these systems. Arcus relies upon grazing-incidence silicon pore X-ray optics with the same 12m focal length (achieved using an extendable optical bench) that will be used for the ESA Athena mission. The focused X-rays from these optics will then be diffracted by high-efficiency off-plane reflection gratings that have already been demonstrated on sub-orbital rocket flights, imaging the results with flight-proven CCD detectors and electronics. The power and telemetry requirements on the spacecraft are modest. The majority of mission operations will not be complex, as most observations will be long (~100 ksec), uninterrupted, and pre-planned, although there will be limited capabilities to observe targets of opportunity, such as tidal disruption events or supernovae with a 3-5 day turnaround. After the end of prime science, we plan to allow guest observations to maximize the science return of Arcus to the community.