Paper Info
Title
Seeker-Autonomous Long-range Rover Navigation for Remote Exploration
Abstract
AbstractUnder 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 5.05ï 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.
Year
DOI
Venue
2014
10.1002/rob.21528
Periodicals
Field
DocType
Volume
Rapid prototyping,Mars Exploration Program,Simulation,Terrain,Software,Engineering,Timekeeping on Mars,Mars rover
Journal
31
Issue
ISSN
Citations 
6
1556-4959
10
PageRank 
References 
Authors
0.54
13
12
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Mark Woods1100.54
Andrew Shaw2100.54
Estelle Tidey3100.54
Bach Van Pham4100.54
S. Lacroix523017.18
Raja Mukherji6151.43
Brian Maddison7100.54
Gary Cross8100.54
Aron Kisdi9100.54
Wayne Tubby10100.54
Gianfranco Visentin11100.54
Guillermo Chong12100.54