Susan Y. Lee

Human-Robot Site Survey and Sampling for Space Exploration

NASA is planning to send humans and robots back to the Moon before 2020. In order for extended missions to be productive, high quality maps of lunar terrain and resources are required. Although orbital images can provide much information, many features (local topography, resources, etc) will have to be characterized directly on the surface. To address this need, we are developing a system to perform site survey and sampling. The system includes multiple robots and humans operating in a variety of team configurations, coordinated via peer-to-peer human-robot interaction. In this paper, we present our system design and describe planned field tests.

Extensible Hardware Architecture for Mobile Robots

The Intelligent Robotics Group at NASA Ames Research Center has developed a new mobile robot hardware architecture designed for extensibility and reconfigurability. Implemented on the K9 rover, and currently being integrated onto the K10 series of human-robot collaboration research robots, this architecture allows for rapid changes in instrumentation configuration and provides a high degree of modularity through a synergistic mix of off-the-shelf and custom designed components, easing incorporation into a wide variety of mobile robot platforms. A component level overview of this architecture is presented along with a description of the modifications required for implementation on K10, followed by plans for future work.

Instrument deployment for Mars Rovers

Future Mars rovers, such as the planned 2009 MSL rover, require sufficient autonomy to robustly approach rock targets and place an instrument in contact with them. It took the 1997 Sojourner Mars rover between 3 and 5 communications cycles to accomplish this. This paper describes the NASA Ames approach to robustly accomplishing single cycle instrument deployment, using the K9 prototype Mars rover. An off-board 3D site model is used to select science targets for the rover. K9 navigates to targets using deduced reckoning, and autonomously assesses the target area to determine where to place an arm mounted microscopic camera. Onboard K9 is a resource cognizant conditional executive, which extends the complexity and duration of operations that a can be accomplished without intervention from mission control.

Autonomous Robotic Inspection for Lunar Surface Operations

In this paper, we describe NASA Ames Research Center’s K10 rover as used in the 2006 Coordinated Field Demonstration at Meteor Crater, Arizona. We briefly discuss the control software architecture and describe a high dynamic range imaging system and panoramic display system used for the remote inspection of an EVA crew vehicle.

Flexible Rover Architecture for Science Instrument Integration and Testing

At NASA Ames Research Center, the Intelligent Robotics Group (IRG) fields the K9 and K10 class rovers. Both use a mobile robot hardware architecture designed for extensibility and reconfigurability that allows for rapid changes in instrumentation and provides a high degree of modularity. Over the past ssveral years, we have worked with instrument developers at NASA centers, universities, and national laboratories to integrate or partially integrate their instruments onboard the K9 and K10 rovers. Early efforts required considerable interaction to work through integration issues such as power, data protocol and mechanical mounting. These interactions informed the design of our current avionics architecture, and have simplified more recent integration projects. In this paper, we will describe the IRG extensible avionics and software architecture and the effect it has had on our recent instrument integration efforts, including integration of four Mars Instrument Development Program devices.

Planetary LakeLander-A Robotic Sentinel to Monitor Remote Lakes

This field report describes the design and operations of the Planetary LakeLander PLL probe and its ground data systems. LakeLanders primary mission is to characterize the physical, chemical, and biological processes occurring in a high-altitude lake, and how they are being impacted by rapid deglaciation. LakeLanders secondary purpose is to test operation concepts for future exploration of Titans lakes. The LakeLander probe is a permanently anchored buoy that measures both surface meteorology and water quality parameters in the top 40i¾?m of the water column. The concept of operations calls for the probe to continue collecting and downlinking data through the Andean winter, when the lake is inaccessible; this drives the power system design and forces a strong focus on system reliability, analogous to a space mission. The PLL ground data system provides the central archive of downlinked data. They are structured around a unified data-sharing web site that includes tools for mapping, data visualization, documentation, and numerical analysis. The web site provides a hub for engaging the science team and enables interdisciplinary collaboration. This report concludes with lessons learned during field deployment and several months of remote operations on the lake. Among the conclusions: 1 the choice to use an off-the-shelf profiling system has proven wise; 2 effective maintenance of a long-lived remote system requires extensive measurement, logging, and display of as many system variables as possible; and 3 the visualization sandbox component of the data-sharing web site has made numerical analysis of probe data much easier and more accessible to the entire interdisciplinary science team.