Mark Woods

The ExoMars rover and Pasteur payload Phase A study: an approach to experimental astrobiology

The Aurora programme is the European Space Agency programme of planetary exploration focused primarily on Mars. Although the long-term goals of Aurora are uncertain, the early phases of the Aurora programme are based on a number of robotic explorer missions - the first of these is the ExoMars rover mission currently scheduled for launch in 2013 (originally 2011). The ExoMars rover - developed during a Phase A study - is a 240 kg Mars rover supporting a 40 kg payload (called Pasteur) of scientific instruments specifically designed for astrobiological prospecting to search for evidence of extant or extinct life. In other words, ExoMars represents a new approach to experimental astrobiology in which scientific instruments are robotically deployed at extraterrestrial environments of astrobiological interest. Presented is an outline of the design of the rover, its robotic technology, its instrument complement and aspects of the design decisions made. ExoMars represents a highly challenging mission, both programmatically and technologically. Some comparisons are made with the highly successful Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity.

Seeker-Autonomous Long-range Rover Navigation for Remote Exploration

Under the umbrella of the European Space Agency ESA StarTiger program, a rapid prototyping study called Seeker was initiated. A range of partners from space and nonspace sectors were brought together to develop a prototype Mars rover system capable of autonomously exploring several kilometers of highly representative Mars terrain over a three-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 200 m 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 behavior in a highly representative environment. The final system autonomously navigated 5.05i¾?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.

PRoViScout: a planetary scouting rover demonstrator

Mobile systems exploring Planetary surfaces in future will require more autonomy than today. The EU FP7-SPACE Project ProViScout (2010-2012) establishes the building blocks of such autonomous exploration systems in terms of robotics vision by a decision-based combination of navigation and scientific target selection, and integrates them into a framework ready for and exposed to field demonstration. The PRoViScout on-board system consists of mission management components such as an Executive, a Mars Mission On-Board Planner and Scheduler, a Science Assessment Module, and Navigation & Vision Processing modules. The platform hardware consists of the rover with the sensors and pointing devices. We report on the major building blocks and their functions & interfaces, emphasizing on the computer vision parts such as image acquisition (using a novel zoomed 3D-Time-of-Flight & RGB camera), mapping from 3D-TOF data, panoramic image & stereo reconstruction, hazard and slope maps, visual odometry and the recognition of potential scientifically interesting targets.

Integrated field testing of planetary robotics vision processing: the PRoVisG campaign in Tenerife 2011

In order to maximize the use of a robotic probe during its limited lifetime, scientists immediately have to be provided the best achievable visual quality of 3D data products. The EU FP7-SPACE Project PRoVisG (2008-2012) develops technology for the rapid processing and effective representation of visual data by improving ground processing facilities. In September 2011 PRoVisG held a Field Trials campaign in the Caldera of Tenerife to verify the implemented 3D Vision processing mechanisms and to collect various sets of reference data in representative environment. The campaign was strongly supported by the Astrium UK Rover Bridget as a representative platform which allows simultaneous onboard mounting and powering of various vision sensors such as the Aberystwyth ExoMars PanCam Emulator (AUPE). The paper covers the preparation work for such a campaign and highlights the experiments that include standard operations- and science- related components but also data capture to verify specific processing functions. We give an overview of the captured data and the compiled and envisaged processing results, as well as a summary of the test sites, logistics and test assets utilized during the campaign.

Developing an autonomous imaging and localisation capability for planetary aerobots

Abstract Balloon based planetary aerobots can be used for a variety of applications such as high resolution imaging and rover guidance. However short to medium term missions of this type will be constrained in terms of power, communications, data storage and processing capability. To be of use, they must be able to localise and manage image data in an autonomous manner, including intelligent prioritisation of images. This paper discusses the development of an intelligent imaging and localisation software package and demonstrator which will help to provide such an autonomous capability.

Simulating Remote Mars Rover Operations in the Atacama Desert for Future ESA Missions

This paper reports on select operations and autonomy aspects of a recent ESA study called SAFER. The study sought to investigate operations strategies for a surface mission such as ExoMars Rover. In order to help prepare for ESA’s first mobile robotic mission on Mars SAFER investigated aspects of the proposed operations strategy in a representative environment. An early ExoMars Rover chassis prototype equipped with several ExoMars payload instrument breadboards was located in the Atacama Desert in Chile with a remote operations and science team situated in the UK to simulate operations over a one week period. The rover system was equipped with full on-board navigation autonomy and partially automated instrument operations. Through-out the course of the week the science and operations team explored a pre-selected region of interest using the rover and payload instruments. This paper presents the results of the field trial from an operations tools perspective and comments on the role of autonomy in such a mission.