Current Results from a Rover Science Data Analysis System
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Current Results from a Rover Science Data Analysis System Rebecca Castano, Michele Judd, Tara Estlin, Robert C. Anderson, Daniel Gaines, Andres Castaño, Ben Bornstein, Tim Stough, and Kiri Wagstaff Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology Pasadena, CA 91109 (818) 393-5344 [email protected] Abstract—The Onboard Autonomous Science Investigation System (OASIS) evaluates geologic data gathered by a planetary rover. This analysis is used to prioritize the data TABLE OF CONTENTS for transmission, so that the data with the highest science 1. INTRODUCTION ..................................................... 1 value is transmitted to Earth. In addition, the onboard 2. OASIS SYSTEM OVERVIEW ................................. 4 analysis results are used to identify science opportunities. A 3. HARDWARE INTEGRATION ................................... 5 planning and scheduling component of the system enables the rover to take advantage of the identified science 4. ROCKIT RESULTS................................................. 7 opportunity. OASIS is a NASA-funded research project 5. CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE WORK ..................... 8 that is currently being tested on the FIDO rover at JPL for 6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS......................................... 8 use on future missions. REFERENCES............................................................. 9 BIOGRAPHY .............................................................. 9 In this paper1, we provide a brief overview of the OASIS system, and then describe our recent successes in 1. INTRODUCTION integrating with and using rover hardware. OASIS currently works in a closed loop fashion with onboard One of the first objectives discussed in A Renewed Spirit of control software (e.g., navigation and vision) and has the Discovery: The President’s Vision for U.S. Space ability to autonomously perform the following sequence of Exploration2, is to “Implement a sustained and affordable steps: analyze gray scale images to find rocks, extract the human and robotic program to explore the solar system and properties of the rocks, identify rocks of interest, retask the beyond.” A major component of the in-situ, robotic rover to take additional imagery of the identified target and exploration program will include the effective utilization of then allow the rover to continue on its original mission. rovers on planetary surfaces. We also describe the early 2004 ground test validation of In-situ exploration of a new rocky planet (or satellite) specific OASIS components on selected Mars Exploration generally begins with the study of its geology, as rocks are Rover (MER) images. These components include the rock- excellent recorders of planetary history. While the 1976 finding algorithm, RockIT, and the rock size feature Viking mission landers offered striking insights into the extraction code. Our team also developed the RockIT GUI, history of Mars, their geologic investigation capabilities an interface that allows users to easily visualize and modify were limited to the length of their robotic arms (see Figure the rock-finder results. This interface has allowed us to 1), and the view of their cameras. conduct preliminary testing and validation of the rock- finder’s performance. In 1997, the Mars Pathfinder mission provided the first rover, Sojourner, to ever travel upon another planetary surface. The farthest radial distance that Sojourner traveled (see Figure 2) was a little over 12 meters on Sol 74, and the total distance traveled during its lifetime was about 100 meters3. More importantly for the following discussion, the longest traverse Sojourner made in one sol (a Martian day) 2 Released in January 2004. An electronic version is available at: http://www.whitehouse.gov/space/renewed_spirit.pdf 1 3 0-7803-8870-4/05/$20.00© 2005 IEEE, IEEEAC paper #1212, Version 3, See http://mars4.jpl.nasa.gov/MPF/rovercom/rovfaq.html#faq1 for a table updated December 27, 2004. listing Sojourner’s technical accomplishments. 1 was a little over 7 meters on Sol 32. The last signal a mission that lasted 12 times longer than its design lifetime received from the rover was on Sol 83, signaling the end of of seven days (http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions). Figure 1: The robotic arm of the Viking 2 Lander extends to collect a sample of soil for analysis. Credit: NASA. JPL Planetary Photojournal ID number: PIA00145. Figure 2: Various images of the Sojourner rover shot by the Pathfinder cameras have been placed into this panorama. Since the camera's position was consistent, it is possible to see these images of the rover in the context of the entire landscape. This provides a visual, snapshot record of the rover’s travels. Panorama made available by Dr. Carol Stoker, NASA AMES. The 2004 Mars Exploration Rovers (MER), Spirit and This hardware durability and increased mobility has forever Opportunity, are currently acting as geological assistants to changed the expectations and future requirements for rover the remote human scientists back on Earth. They are operations. Long, extended missions make it expensive and directed to travel to a science site and are then instructed to difficult to maintain a fully staffed operations team. visit rocks of interest and perform various scientific Besides cost, other concerns that lengthy in-situ missions measurements on them. This is a slow and tedious process raise include the physical and mental toll on the scientists, due to round-trip communication time, transmission engineers and their families. bandwidth, and transmission opportunity constraints. On April 17, 2004, Opportunity set a new one-sol driving record of 140.9 meters (462 feet) on Sol 82 of its extraordinary mission. This record is unlikely to survive the end of the MER mission. As of September 3, 2004, Spirit had traveled over 3,600 meters (see Figure 3) and had already survived 148 sols past its 90 day design lifetime. 2 Figure 3 This map shows the 3,622.7 meter traverse of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit through the rover's 238th martian day, or sol (Sept. 3, 2004). The background image consists of frames from the Mars Orbiter Camera on NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor orbiter. Inset images along the route are from Spirit’s navigation camera. From its landing site, Spirit drove up to the rim of "Bonneville" crater on the far left, then to the north rim of "Missoula" crater, followed by a long drive across the plains to the "West Spur." The scale bar at lower left is 500 meters (1,640 feet). North is up. Credit: NASA/JPL. JPL image number PIA 06872. Scientists are starting to acknowledge the benefit that Earth, the data is already prioritized – ensuring that the most autonomous operations might bring to the table, and are valuable data is sent first. now requesting “smarter” rovers with a greater capability for autonomy for future missions4. As OASIS is working to prioritize the data, it is also searching for specific targets it has been told to find by the There are a number of autonomous rover capabilities science team. If one of these targets is found, it is identified currently in development for future in-situ missions. One as a new science opportunity and a “science alert” is sent to key capability, autonomous onboard science, continues to the planning and scheduling component of OASIS. After grow in importance as rover travel distances continue to reviewing the rover’s current operational status to ensure dramatically increase. OASIS [1, 2], an Onboard that it has enough resources to complete its traverse and act Autonomous Science Investigation System, is a JPL- on the new science opportunity, OASIS changes the managed project designed to maximize mission science on command sequence of the rover. rover missions with long traverses. The rover is instructed to stop its current traverse, locate the OASIS is designed to operate onboard a rover during a long rock that triggered the science alert, and take additional data traverse. It analyzes geologic data the rover gathers, and (e.g., color image, closer grayscale image, spectrometer then prioritizes the data based on criteria set by the science reading) on that rock. Once it has completed this additional team. At the next opportunity for transmitting data back to measurement, the rover reverts back to its original plan and then continues on its traverse. 4 A recent example is Dr. Steve Squyres (Athena Science Payload Principal Investigator for the MER mission) at the AAS conference in Pasadena, California (11/16/2004) during his Carl Sagan Memorial Award Lecture. 3 This science alert scenario has now been effectively In the past year, significant progress has been made on demonstrated in a closed loop fashion with control software advancing the robustness of the OASIS system; to put this (e.g., navigation and vision) that is already onboard. This progress in perspective, however, an overview of the successful demonstration of OASIS, however, did not come OASIS system (see Figure 5) and its desired autonomous without a price. A large investment of time and trouble- capabilities is required. shooting had to be supplied to integrate OASIS with the hardware and the hazard avoidance, position estimation and control software components. This paper will outline lessons learned from this experience. Integration of OASIS onto a rover is a key step toward validating the technology for a future mission; however, it is just one step forward in a very long validation journey. Another validation effort under way is the rigorous performance testing of RockIT, the OASIS rock-finding algorithm. During the validation of RockIT, it became clear that some type of graphical user interface (GUI) was needed for scientists to interact with RockIT and begin their evaluation of the software. OASIS developed a GUI that permitted scientists to quickly visualize and edit the rock-finder results. This new GUI (see Figure 4) allowed the scientists and the OASIS team to conduct preliminary testing and Figure 4 Screenshot from RockIT GUI used to provide validation of the rock-finder’s performance. hand labeling (ground truth) to compare against the rock detector results.