Ground and Onboard Automated Scheduling for the Mars 2020 Rover Mission
No abstract provided
Towey, Shannon↗
Engineering topics
Gaines, Daniel
Publications and source records attributed to Gaines, Daniel.
Ground and Onboard Automated Scheduling for the Mars 2020 Rover Mission
The Mars 2020 Rover mission is using automated scheduling in two capacities. As of March 2021 a ground-based scheduler automatically schedules rover wake/sleep and preheats to support Mars 2020 daily operations. Included in the ground system is an explainable scheduling tool that allows users in-sight into the schedule developed by the automated scheduler. An onboard scheduler that will allow the rover autonomously better account for variations in execution is in development for use later in the mission.
Towey, Shannon↗
Integrated Planning and Execution for a Self-Reliant Mars Rover
Planetary rovers exploring the surface of Mars face a challenging operational environment that requires close cooperation between deliberative planning and behavioral execution in order to most efficiently leverage the robot’s capabilities into science value returned to earth. The Self-Reliant Rovers project envisions future rover missions that require only occasional high-level direction from human controllers to successfully conduct detailed in-situ studies of its Martian environs. To achieve this high degree of autonomy, this work leverages a spectrum of planning and execution techniques that allow the rover to respond appropriately to both opportunity and adversity it encounters. Small perturbations are accommodated at first by behavioral adaptation, with more and more extensive disruptions handled in turn by executive administration of plan flexibility, heuristic-guided plan repair strategies, and finally comprehensive replanning from science campaign goals. The integrated system has been deployed and tested on a terrestrial rover in an environment and under scenarios that anticipate those faced by future Mars rovers. This paper recounts complexities of planning and execution coordination faced in the rover domain and the practical solutions employed to address them. Particular emphasis is given to lessons from the field and foibles ripe for remedy by future advances in planning and execution research.
Gaines, Daniel↗
Self-Reliant Rover Design for Increasing Mission Productivity
Achieving consistently high levels of productivity has been a challenge for Mars surface missions. While the rovers have made major discoveries and dramatically increased our understanding of Mars, they often require a great deal of effort from the operations teams, and achieving mission objectives can take longer than anticipated. The objective of this work is to identify changes to flight software and ground operations that enable high levels of productivity with reduced reliance on ground interactions. This will enable the development of Self-Reliant Rovers: rovers that make use of high-level guidance from operators to select their own situational activities and respond to unexpected conditions, all without dependence on ground intervention. In this paper we describe the system we are developing and illustrate how it enables increased mission productivity.
Vasavada, Ashwin↗
Self-Reliant Rover Design for Increasing Mission Productivity
Achieving consistently high levels of productivity has been a challenge for Mars surface missions. While the rovers have made major discoveries and dramatically increased our understanding of Mars, they often require a great deal of effort from the operations teams, and achieving mission objectives can take longer than anticipated. The objective of this work is to identify changes to flight software and ground operations that enable high levels of productivity with reduced reliance on ground interactions. This will enable the development of Self-Reliant Rovers: rovers that make use of high-level guidance from operators to select their own situational activities and respond to unexpected conditions, all without dependence on ground intervention. In this paper we describe the system we are developing and illustrate how it enables increased mission productivity.
Vasavada, Ashwin↗
Incorporating AEGIS Autonomous Science into Mars Science Laboratory Rover Mission Operations
The AEGIS (Autonomous Exploration for Gathering Increased Science) intelligent targeting software system has been in use on the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission since 2016. The system allows on-board autonomous selection of targets for the ChemCam remote geochemistry instrument based on analysis of images taken by the rover. This paper describes the deployment of AEGIS to MSL and the operational use of the system since rollout to science operations in May of 2016.
Deflores, Lauren↗
Scientist-Guided Autonomy for Self-Reliant Rovers
Although Mars rover missions have been highly successful in accomplishing scientific objectives, mission productivity is limited by challenges stemming from the need for commanding ground-based targeted observations under communication constraints imposed by the large distance between Earth and Mars. With an aging fleet of sun-synchronous relay orbiters, the opportunities for regular communication with rovers may become even more limited. In addition to on-board planning, robust navigation, and health assessment, there are strategies to make future rovers more self-reliant by enabling them to perform autonomous scientific characterizations of new areas during periods without an opportunity for ground-based targeted observations. In particular, we have studied how a ”walkabout” strategy, in which an initial high-level characterization of a region is used to informed subsequent passes with specific targeted observations, was used successfully during the investigation of Pahrump Hills by the Mars Science Laboratory. Inspired by this approach, we have identified several capabilities that could allow a rover to autonomously perform some of these initial high-level characterization steps. In this paper, we describe technologies for identifying specific geologic units, regions, or features of interest, identifying areas of contact between two adjacent units, detecting and determining the orientation of layering within rock units, identifying novel and interesting features, and planning observations of regions with different sampling strategies using remote sensing instruments. The observations acquired with these approaches are driven by scientists’ guidance and can provide scientists with data to help inform their decisions about where to make more resource-intensive targeted observations.
Doran, Gary↗
Expressing Campaign Intent to Increase Productivity of Planetary Exploration Rovers
Achieving consistently high levels of productivity has been a challenge for Mars surface missions. While the rovers have made major discoveries and dramatically increased our understanding of Mars, they often require a great deal of effort from the operations teams and achieving mission objectives can take longer than anticipated. Missions have begun investigating ways to enhance productivity by increasing the amount of decision-making performed onboard the rovers. Our work focuses on the use of goal-based commanding as a means of more productively operating rovers. In particular, we are working on ways to convey the intent that operations team use to conduct science campaigns to the rover so that it can guide the rover in creating high quality plans and in identifying its own goals based on operator guidance. In addition to informing future surface exploration missions, this work is relevant for a wide range of applications in which operators must interact with limited communication opportunities.
Gaines, Daniel↗
A Case Study of Productivity Challenges in Mars Science Laboratory Operations
Achieving consistently high levels of productivity has been a challenge for Mars surface missions. While the rovers have made major discoveries and dramatically increased our understanding of Mars, they often require a great deal of effort from the operations teams and achieving mission objectives can take longer than anticipated. We conducted an in-depth case study of Mars Science Laboratory operations in order to identify the productivity challenges facing surface missions. In this paper, we describe how we performed the case study and analyzed the data. We present and discuss the significant productivity challenges we identified during the study. In addition to informing future surface exploration missions, the study is relevant for a wide range of applications in which operators must interact with a robotic system with limited communication opportunities.
Gaines, Daniel↗
Productivity Challenges for Mars Rover Operations
Achieving consistently high levels of productivity for surface exploration missions has been a challenge for Mars missions. While the rovers have made major discoveries and accomplished a large number of objectives, they often require a great deal of effort from the operations teams and achievingobjectives can take longer than anticipated. This paper describes the early stages of a multi-year project to investigate solutions for enhancing surface mission productivity. A primary focus of this early stage is to conduct in-depth studies of Mars Science Laboratory science campaigns to gain a deeper understanding of the factors that impact productivity, and to use this understanding to identify potential changes to flight software and ground operations practices to increase productivity. We present the science campaigns we have selected along with a conceptual model of how surface missions achieve objectives that is used to guide the study. We also provide some early thoughts on the technologies, and their interactions, which we believe will play an important role in addressing surface mission productivity challenges.We are in the early stages of a multi-year project to studyand address productivity challenges of future surface missions. We have identified campaigns from the MSL missionfor study which we believe will yield valuable informationabout the nature of surface mission productivity challenges.Based on preliminary analysis from the data collected weanticipate that the lessons from these case studies will helpdevelop and mature our concepts for changes to flight andground systems to address these challenges.While the focus of our work is on Mars rover missions, webelieve the concepts in the work will be applicable to a variety of in-situ explorers, including Venus, and Titan, as wellas orbital missions, such as the Europa orbiter. These missions will also benefit from the ability to adapt and respondto the latest state of the spacecraft and its environment.
Gaines, Daniel↗
Two Years Onboard the MER Opportunity Rover
The Autonomous Exploration for Gathering Increased Science (AEGIS) system provides automated data collection for planetary rovers. AEGIS is currently being used onboard the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission's Opportunity to provide autonomous targeting of the MER Panoramic camera. Prior to AEGIS, targeted data was collected in a manual fashion where targets were manually identified in images transmitted to Earth and the rover had to remain in the same location for one to several communication cycles. AEGIS enables targeted data to be rapidly acquired with no delays for ground communication. Targets are selected by AEGIS through the use of onboard data analysis techniques that are guided by scientist-specified objectives. This paper provides an overview of the how AEGIS has been used on the Opportunity rover, focusing on usage that occurred during a 21 kilometer historic trek to the Mars Endeavour crater.
Mars Exploration Rover (MER)↗