Field Experiments in Mobility and Navigation with a Lunar Rover Prototype

Wettergreen, David; Jonak, Dominic; Kohanbash, David; Moreland, Scott; Spiker, Spencer; Teza, James

doi:10.1007/978-3-642-13408-1_44

Cited by 15 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…(); Wettergreen et al. (); Wulf et al. ()], for vast‐scale navigation in outdoor, unstructured environments, we argue against the traditional scan‐matching approach for the following two reasons: (i) scan‐matching techniques require a good initial guess to ensure convergence, and (ii) scan matching is heavily dependent on distinctive topography.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lighting‐invariant Visual Teach and Repeat Using Appearance‐based Lidar

McManus

Furgale

Stenning

et al. 2012

Journal of Field Robotics

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Visual Teach and Repeat (VT&R) is an effective method to enable a vehicle to repeat any previously driven route using just a visual sensor and without a global positioning system. However, one of the major challenges in recognizing previously visited locations is lighting change, as this can drastically alter the appearance of the scene. In an effort to achieve lighting invariance, this paper details the design of a VT&R system that uses a laser scanner as the primary sensor. Unlike a traditional scan‐matching approach, we apply appearance‐based computer vision techniques to laser intensity images for motion estimation, providing us the benefit of lighting invariance. Field tests were conducted in an outdoor, planetary analogue environment, over an entire diurnal cycle, repeating a 1.1 km route more than 10 times with an autonomy rate of 99.7% by distance. We describe, in detail, our experimental setup and results, as well as how we address the various off‐nominal scenarios related to feature‐poor environments, hardware failures, and estimation drift. An analysis on motion distortion and a comparison with a stereo‐based system is also presented. We show that even without motion compensation, our system is robust enough to repeat long‐range routes accurately and reliably. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lighting‐invariant Visual Teach and Repeat Using Appearance‐based Lidar

McManus

Furgale

Stenning

et al. 2012

Journal of Field Robotics

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“…Rekleitis et al () applied a decimated irregular triangular mesh (ITM) to represent the terrain measured by LIDAR (Dupuis et al, ). Similar triangulation mapping for a lunar rover prototype can be seen in the work done by Wettergreen et al ().…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 54%

Range‐dependent Terrain Mapping and Multipath Planning using Cylindrical Coordinates for a Planetary Exploration Rover

Ishigami

Otsuki

Kubota

2013

Journal of Field Robotics

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This paper presents terrain mapping and path‐planning techniques that are key issues for autonomous mobility of a planetary exploration rover. In this work, a LIDAR (light detection and ranging) sensor is used to obtain geometric information on the terrain. A point cloud of the terrain feature provided from the LIDAR sensor is usually converted to a digital elevation map. A sector‐shaped reference grid for the conversion process is proposed in this paper, resulting in an elevation map with cylindrical coordinates termed as C2DEM. This conversion approach achieves a range‐dependent resolution for the terrain mapping: a detailed terrain representation near the rover and a sparse representation far from the rover. The path planning utilizes a cost function composed of terrain inclination, terrain roughness, and path length indices, each of which is subject to a weighting factor. The multipath planning developed in this paper first explores possible sets of weighting factors and generates multiple candidate paths. The most feasible path is then determined by a comparative evaluation between the candidate paths. Field experiments with a rover prototype at a Lunar/Martian analog site were performed to confirm the feasibility of the proposed techniques, including the range‐dependent terrain mapping with C2DEM and the multipath‐planning method.

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“…The basal joints account actively for propelling the system. 2) Inch Worming: The drive mode inch worming utilizes the fact that in this mode at least two wheels have fixed ground contact at all times to reduce the slippage of the vehicle [7]. Fig.…”

Section: Drive Modes For Sherpamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Scarab [7] is a four wheeled rover that combines a classical bogie suspension with an active DoF to enhance the ability to climb and drive along slopes. Furthermore, the control of the body height as well as the roll angle of the robot is possible.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Locomotion modes for a hybrid wheeled-leg planetary rover

Cordes¹,

Dettmann²,

Kirchner³

2011

2011 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Biomimetics

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This paper introduces locomotion modes for the planetary rover Sherpa 1 . The rover's locomotion system consists of four wheeled-legs, each providing a total of six degrees of freedom. The design of the active suspension system allows a wide range of posture and drive modes for the rover. Selflocking gears in the suspension system allow to maintain the body height without the need of actively driving the actuators. Thus, energy-efficient wheeled locomotion and at the same time high flexibility in ground adaption and obstacle negotiation are possible, as well as high payload capabilities. Furthermore, the rover will be equipped with a manipulator arm explicitly designed to be used for locomotion support. Thus, all degrees of freedom of the system can be used to enhance the locomotive capabilities. This paper gives an overview of the mechanical design of the rover, kinematic considerations for movement constraints on the wheel contact points are presented. Based on these constraints, the wheel motions due to the commanded velocities of the platform can be calculated, taking into account the flexible posture of the rover. A first set of possible locomotion modes for the rover is presented in this paper as well.

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Field Experiments in Mobility and Navigation with a Lunar Rover Prototype

Cited by 15 publications

References 3 publications

Lighting‐invariant Visual Teach and Repeat Using Appearance‐based Lidar

Lighting‐invariant Visual Teach and Repeat Using Appearance‐based Lidar

Range‐dependent Terrain Mapping and Multipath Planning using Cylindrical Coordinates for a Planetary Exploration Rover

Locomotion modes for a hybrid wheeled-leg planetary rover

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