Inspection with Robotic Microscopic Imaging

Future Mars rover missions will require more advanced onboard autonomy for increased scientific productivity and reduced mission operations cost. One such form of autonomy can be achieved by targeting precise science measurements to be made in a single command uplink cycle. In this paper we present an overview of our solution to the subproblems of navigating a rover into place for microscopic imaging, mapping an instrument target point selected by an operator using far away science camera images to close up hazard camera images, verifying the safety of placing a contact instrument on a sample or finding nearby safe points, and analyzing the data that comes back from the rover. The system developed includes portions used in the Multiple Target Single Cycle Instrument Placement demonstration at NASA Ames in October 2004, and portions of the MI Toolkit delivered to the Athena Microscopic Imager Instrument Team for the MER mission still operating on Mars today. Some of the component technologies are also under consideration for MSL mission infusion

Efficient Autonomous Navigation for Planetary Rovers with Limited Resources

Rovers operating on Mars are in need of more and more autonomous features to ful ll their challenging mission requirements. However, the inherent constraints of space systems make the implementation of complex algorithms an expensive and difficult task. In this paper we propose a control architecture for autonomous navigation. Efficient implementations of autonomous features are built on top of the current ExoMars navigation method, enhancing the safety and traversing capabilities of the rover. These features allow the rover to detect and avoid hazards and perform long traverses by following a roughly safe path planned by operators on ground. The control architecture implementing the proposed navigation mode has been tested during a field test campaign on a planetary analogue terrain. The experiments evaluated the proposed approach, autonomously completing two long traverses while avoiding hazards. The approach only relies on the optical Localization Cameras stereobench, a sensor that is found in all rovers launched so far, and potentially allows for computationally inexpensive long-range autonomous navigation in terrains of medium difficulty

Autonomous science for an ExoMars Rover-like mission

In common with other Mars exploration missions, human supervision of Europe's ExoMars Rover will be mostly indirect via orbital relay spacecraft and thus far from immediate. The gap between issuing commands and witnessing the results of the consequent rover actions will typically be on the order of several hours or even sols. In addition, it will not be possible to observe the external environment at the time of action execution. This lengthens the time required to carry out scientific exploration and limits the mission's ability to respond quickly to favorable science events. To increase potential science return for such missions, it will be necessary to deploy autonomous systems that include science target selection and active data acquisition. In this work, we have developed and integrated technologies that we explored in previous studies and used the resulting test bed to demonstrate an autonomous, opportunistic science concept on a representative robotic platform. In addition to progressing the system design approach and individual autonomy components, we have introduced a methodology for autonomous science assessment based on terrestrial field science practice

Mapping disciplinary relationships in Astrobiology: 2001-2012

Astrobiology is an emerging field that addresses three fundamental questions: 1) How does “life,” defined as a “self-sustaining chemical system capable of Darwinian evolution,” (Mullen, 2013, p.1) in the Universe begin and evolve? 2) Does life exist elsewhere in the Universe? & 3) What is the future of life on Earth? With such intriguing questions, all rooted in human concerns, success in answering these questions depends upon the integration of diverse scientific disciplines, including the social sciences as well as the humanities. In this thesis, I state that integration can only happen through interdisciplinary knowledge production, defined as the process of answering a question, solving a problem, or addressing a subject involving several unrelated academic disciplines in a way that forces them to cross subject boundaries in order to create new knowledge and theory (Klein & Newell, 1998). Thus, this thesis addresses the following question – What are the barriers to the social sciences and humanities having a clear presence in Astrobiology research? And what are future prospects for acceptability and funding for interdisciplinary research in Astrobiology, especially from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which is the largest source of funding for Astrobiology (NRC, 2008)? In this thesis I review abstracts and categorize disciplinary identities of research articles published in Astrobiology, the oldest journal dedicated solely to Astrobiology, from 2001 to 2012. I then create annual spatial maps of Astrobiology research articles using bibliometrics, which are methods used to quantitatively analyze and create maps of academic literature origins. Specifically, I determine 1) the number of disciplines involved in specific Astrobiology articles, as well as 2) the extent to which a research article cites diverse disciplines. From this information, maps showing the predominance of disciplines as well as the distribution of citations, known as disciplinary diversity, are created. By looking at the organization of research, questions are raised about how disciplinary structures came about and what relationships exist among research disciplines. These questions are then analyzed through psychological and sociological ideas used to describe interdisciplinary research relationships. The results suggest that research shows little embeddedness (i.e. connection with) among multiple disciplines, likely due to entrenched disciplinary culture and privileging, in which researchers have a tendency to value and collaborate only with similar disciplines. This study concludes by offering a number of recommendations regarding promoting effective integration of the social science and humanities into Astrobiology

3D position tracking for all-terrain robots

Rough terrain robotics is a fast evolving field of research and a lot of effort is deployed towards enabling a greater level of autonomy for outdoor vehicles. Such robots find their application in scientific exploration of hostile environments like deserts, volcanoes, in the Antarctic or on other planets. They are also of high interest for search and rescue operations after natural or artificial disasters. The challenges to bring autonomy to all terrain rovers are wide. In particular, it requires the development of systems capable of reliably navigate with only partial information of the environment, with limited perception and locomotion capabilities. Amongst all the required functionalities, locomotion and position tracking are among the most critical. Indeed, the robot is not able to fulfill its task if an inappropriate locomotion concept and control is used, and global path planning fails if the rover loses track of its position. This thesis addresses both aspects, a) efficient locomotion and b) position tracking in rough terrain. The Autonomous System Lab developed an off-road rover (Shrimp) showing excellent climbing capabilities and surpassing most of the existing similar designs. Such an exceptional climbing performance enables an extension in the range of possible areas a robot could explore. In order to further improve the climbing capabilities and the locomotion efficiency, a control method minimizing wheel slip has been developed in this thesis. Unlike other control strategies, the proposed method does not require the use of soil models. Independence from these models is very significant because the ability to operate on different types of soils is the main requirement for exploration missions. Moreover, our approach can be adapted to any kind of wheeled rover and the processing power needed remains relatively low, which makes online computation feasible. In rough terrain, the problem of tracking the robot's position is tedious because of the excessive variation of the ground. Further, the field of view can vary significantly between two data acquisition cycles. In this thesis, a method for probabilistically combining different types of sensors to produce a robust motion estimation for an all-terrain rover is presented. The proposed sensor fusion scheme is flexible in that it can easily accommodate any number of sensors, of any kind. In order to test the algorithm, we have chosen to use the following sensory inputs for the experiments: 3D-Odometry, inertial measurement unit (accelerometers, gyros) and visual odometry. The 3D-Odometry has been specially developed in the framework of this research. Because it accounts for ground slope discontinuities and the rover kinematics, this technique results in a reasonably precise 3D motion estimate in rough terrain. The experiments provided excellent results and proved that the use of complementary sensors increases the robustness and accuracy of the pose estimate. In particular, this work distinguishes itself from other similar research projects in the following ways: the sensor fusion is performed with more than two sensor types and sensor fusion is applied a) in rough terrain and b) to track the real 3D pose of the rover. Another result of this work is the design of a high-performance platform for conducting further research. In particular, the rover is equipped with two computers, a stereovision module, an omnidirectional vision system, an inertial measurement unit, numerous sensors and actuators and electronics for power management. Further, a set of powerful tools has been developed to speed up the process of debugging algorithms and analyzing data stored during the experiments. Finally, the modularity and portability of the system enables easy adaptation of new actuators and sensors. All these characteristics speed up the research in this field

Development of algorithms and methodological analyses for the definition of the operation mode of the Raman Laser Spectrometer instrument

La misión ExoMars de la ESA enviará un rover a Marte en 2018 y llevará a bordo un espectrómetro Raman para el análisis de muestras marcianas. Esta tesis pretende evaluar las capacidades científicas de instrumento RLS, con dos objetivos principales: En primer lugar, la automatización del instrumento y la optimización de la adquisición de espectros. Para ello, es necesario definir nuevos procedimientos algorítmicos que proporcionan el instrumento con la lógica de decisión autónoma con el fin de optimizar los recursos disponibles, mientras que el aumento de la calidad y cantidad de espectros adquiridos. En segundo lugar, la explotación de los datos desde el instrumento RLS. Para lograr este objetivo, se han estudiado las consecuencias que tienen sobre los espectros las limitaciones impuestas por la operación en un entorno espacial, y, en concreto, en el rover de ExoMars (operación basada en muestras en polvo). Además, se han aplicado y evaluado diferentes técnicas analíticas para el análisis de los espectros adquiridos por el instrumento en estas condiciones operacionales. Esto tiene como objetivo no solamente la identificación de las muestras, sino también la cuantificación de su abundancia en mezclas sencillas, permitiendo así evaluar las capacidades y el alcance de este tipo de técnicas.Departamento de Física de la Materia Condensada, Cristalografía y Mineralogí