Field testing of a rover guidance, navigation, and control architecture to support a ground-ice prospecting mission to Mars

Barfoot, Timothy D.; Furgale, Paul; Stenning, Braden; Carle, Patrick; Thomson, Laura; Osinski, G. R.; Daly, M. G.; Ghafoor, Naureen

doi:10.1016/j.robot.2011.03.004

Cited by 11 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…More recently, Rekleitis et al (, ) performed comprehensive works on an autonomous navigation system using LIDAR for terrain modeling and path planning of planetary exploration rovers. Barfoot et al (, ) reported an integrated field campaign on a Martian analogue site in which they demonstrated the rover guidance, navigation, and control architecture for a ground‐ice prospecting mission.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

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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Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

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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“…The localization errors are on the order of 100 meters in terrain with appreciable local variation in elevation. Barfoot, et al proposed global localization by correlating digital elevation maps (DEMs) from prior orbital data with LIDAR-based DEMs produced on-board the rover [21] [22]. Because DEMs built from orbital data are typically low resolution, this requires long-range 3D mapping on-board the rover.…”

Section: Position Estimation By Registration Tomentioning

confidence: 99%

Position estimation by registration to planetary terrain

Sheshadri

Peterson

Jones

et al. 2012

2012 IEEE International Conference on Multisensor Fusion and Integration for Intelligent Systems (MFI)

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Abstract-LIDAR-only and camera-only approaches to global localization in planetary environments have relied heavily on availability of elevation data. The low-resolution nature of available DEMs limits the accuracy of these methods. Availability of new high-resolution planetary imagery motivates the rover localization method presented here. The method correlates terrain appearance with orthographic imagery. A rover generates a colorized 3D model of the local terrain using a panorama of camera and LIDAR data. This model is orthographically projected onto the ground plane to create a template image. The template is then correlated with available satellite imagery to determine rover location. No prior elevation data is necessary. Experiments in simulation demonstrate 2m accuracy. This method is robust to 30° differences in lighting angle between satellite and rover imagery. I. INTRODUCTIONGlobal localization for planetary rovers has bearing on many applications of exploratory and scientific interest. Rovers will be expected to maintain precise pose estimates over long traverses, build detailed models of interesting regions, and accurately correlate in-situ measurements with satellite imagery to achieve high science return. Autonomous global localization results in more efficient use of human operators, enabling them to focus on scientific and exploration objectives instead of rover positioning. It also makes possible driving without communication for operations such as forays into radio-dark craters at the poles of the Moon. Despite its impact, precise, autonomous, global localization has not yet been achieved. Current means for localization include absolute methods like radio tracking from a satellite and matching to elevation data, and relative methods like wheel odometry, inertial navigation, and visual odometry. Absolute methods using radio rely on infrastructure and are limited to operate within line-of-sight of the radio beacon. Elevation data is often much lower resolution than available imagery, limiting localization precision. Relative methods drift over time and become inaccurate without human input. These approaches are insufficient for long-range traverse where regular updates from Earth are infeasible and line of sight is not

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Advanced Systems Concept for Autonomous Construction and Self-repair of Lunar Surface ISRU Structures

Benaroya

Indyk

Mottaghi

2012

Moon

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Field testing of a rover guidance, navigation, and control architecture to support a ground-ice prospecting mission to Mars

Cited by 11 publications

References 35 publications

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

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

Position estimation by registration to planetary terrain

Advanced Systems Concept for Autonomous Construction and Self-repair of Lunar Surface ISRU Structures

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