Abstract
Satellites
and antennas
On
Mars Communication
|
Communication
and Software
Basic Specifications The basic design will be based on the Mars Sojourner robot launched in 1996, with extensive modifications in the area of autonomy, artificial intelligence, and data processing. It is assumed that the rover will generate about 16 W of power with solar cells, and will carry a battery-powered transponder to allow it to be found if the power shuts down. Currently, we hope to improve the data transfer rate from the 9.6 Kbps on Sojourner’s UHF modem to 100Kbps between the LMR and the medium-sized rover. Also, the processor will probably be around 100 to 300 MHz Pentium as opposed to the 8085-architecture processor on Sojourner. So far the task subdivision between the LMRs, the larger rovers, and the base will be as follows:
On a large scale, navigation will be determined by the larger rovers as they will calculate the best general path to the assigned destination waypoint. The path will be followed by the whole convoy. However, the navigation of the LMRs will be left to their own computers. The path planning algorithm will use data from stereo images from the rovers, satellite terrain maps, and a close-range laser hazard detector. In general, the terrain map will be based on the FIDO (Field Integrated Design and Operations) concept developed by the JPL for autonomous sample-return missions. The navigation algorithms running on all the rovers allow a significant decrease in the need for low-level commands to be sent to the rovers for navigation. In particular, one may expect the rover to handle:
In order to facilitate long, autonomous travel, new algorithms for processing stereo data and generating local terrain maps have been devised that improve calculation speeds five-fold. This enhancement, along with the more powerful processor to be used on each LMR, will allow it to drive and steer continuously while calculating the optimal path as it moves. Each new waypoint for the LMR will be on the order of 100 m distant. At each waypoint, the rover will use its stereo camera to obtain a panoramic picture of its surroundings spanning 120 degrees. The edge of the envelope of the image will be at a radius of approximately 20 m. The rover’s on-board computer will then combine the stereo images into a “mosaic” that shows the same terrain from different angles. The computer will create a composite height map from the different images, and, finally, use the information from the height maps to generate a three-dimensional terrain map that the path-planning algorithm can use to avoid obstacles and find its way to the next waypoint. Ideally, this process should be continuous and the image processing should be done as the rover drives on. While the rover is steering, it will use its more low-level obstacle avoidance mechanisms, such as laser detectors, to avoid running into obstacles in its immediate proximity that were unseen earlier. The path to each waypoint may be subdivided into small segments of about 5 m between subsequent stereo images. Localization may be performed at each step by taking a backward image and analyzing the relative motion of landmarks identified earlier. The waypoints will be determined by the central large rover and will correspond to the general path of the convoy. The activities, scientific experiments, and other actions that the LMR is to perform durings its travel will be sent out as commands from the large rover. However, the LMR will have some degree of autonomy in responding to emergencies or unforeseen situations by changing its planned activities using an artificial intelligence planning and sequencing system known as CASPER (Continuous Activity Scheduling, Planning, Execution, and Replanning). This algorithm will be running on the LMR’s computer, and will receive general commands from the medium-sized rover leading the convoy. The commands may include activities to perform, scientific experiments to conduct, samples to search for and extract, and interactions with other LMR. The CASPER system will generate a sequence of low-level commands that can be directly fed to the rover’s computer. However, if unexpected events (emergencies, unforeseen discoveries of interesting samples, unplanned obstacles, etc.) occur, the CASPER system will use an algorithm known as iterative repair to autonomously decide the best course of action. This algorithm sequentially resolves conflicts in the LMR’s planned operations and the dynamically changing resource constraints (such as an unexpected power failure), rover state constraints, and other scientific requirements in a way that does minimal damage to the ability of the rover to fulfill the goals sent to it by the medium-sized rover. The CASPER algorithm responds dynamically to changes in the rover’s environment by continuously replanning the rover’s actions. For instance, if, on the way to its next waypoint, the rover’s stereo cameras detect an unforeseen, large obstacle that was not shown in satellite maps of the area, the algorithm will automatically begin to follow the boundary of the obstacle. If this will lead the rover closer to sites that were planned for much later in the rover’s schedule, the CASPER algorithm will automatically rearrange the order of the rover’s activities to use this opportunity to perform some experiments ahead of time. The CASPER system will include a dynamic path-planning algorithm that will allow the rover to navigate towards its waypoint while being able to handle unforeseen obstacles. The algorithm is specifically tailored to minimize the amount of unnecessary motion the rover needs to perform (to save energy), and it is designed to be sufficiently parsimonious in its use of computing resources to be able to run locally on the rover’s computer. Taking a terrain topographical map based upon satellite imagery and the rover’s stereo cameras as input, this algorithm will model the obstacles as polygons and generate a sequence of steps of two major types: motion towards the goal (waypoint) and motion following the boundary of a large obstacle. Typically, the rover is in the mode of moving towards the goal while avoiding small obstacles, and the motion is updated at each step by the algorithm as new data arrives from the stereo cameras. When large obstacles are encountered, the rover will switch to following their boundaries to arrive at a place where the path planner can find a new path towards the goal. The algorithm is essentially the same as the RoverBug algorithm that the JPL is developing for the 2003 and 2005 sample return missions that will necessarily require a high degree of rover autonomy since the missions will be unmanned. The actual path-planning algorithm relies on the terrain map of the surrounding area to create a local tangent graph (LTG) in the visible region of ground. The tangent graph is a set of line segments that are tangent to all the obstacles at given vertices and that ultimately connect the rover’s current position to its destination (which may be a locally-generated segment of the path to the waypoint). Each line segment extends from one obstacle vertex to the vertex of another obstacle in such a way that at each vertex the line segment touches the vertex but does not traverse the inside of the obstacle. At each vertex of a particular obstacle, numerous line segments originate and run to the vertices of neighboring obstacles, without going through the interior of any obstacle. The set of all such line segments in the visible region is the local tangent graph, and the problem of navigating towards the goal (in the cases where a route of approaching the goal exists and boundary-following is not necessary) is reduced to the problem of calculating the shortest path from the rover to the goal on the local tangent graph. By the way the graph is constructed, all paths lie outside the obstacles, and so the rover can physically follow them. In fact, the rover’s computer calculates the shortest path to the goal and the rover then follows that path. (This calculation is very similar to solving the mathematical Traveling Salesman Problem in which the shortest path between points on a graph must be determined.) When the edge of the local terrain map is reached, the process is repeated. However, there are situations in which the above-described algorithm will fail. In particular, if the rover encounters a large obstacle that completely blocks its path to the goal and for which a complete map is unavailable, the local tangent graph will not contain a path that will sequentially take the rover closer to its goal. Thus, the rover must use another technique to overcome this problem, namely boundary circumnavigation. The rover will switch to this navigation mode if it encounters an obstacle around which there is no path in the local tangent graph. The rover’s computer calculates the shortest path around the boundary of the object in order to avoid such unnecessary waste of power and time as tracing out the complex indentations of the obstacle. Generally, the trajectory of the rover should be a convex hull around the object, and, in addition, the path-planning algorithm should continously search for shortcuts. As soon as this technique has placed the rover at a spot where its new LTG’s have paths that take the rover closer to its target, the boundary circumnavigation will cease and the rover will revert to following the shortest path in its LTG. In some cases, the rover may return to its starting place in a loop around an obstacle, which means that the obstacles surround the target in such a way that it is unreachable. Otherwise, it may be proven that the alogrithm will generate optimal paths to the target given the limitations of the knowledge of the obstacles in the rover’s vicinity. The path-planning and navigation algorithm can be very effective, but it depends very heavily on knowledge of the rover’s exact position in relation to its surroundings at all times. The simplest method of counting the revolutions of the wheels and the steering after some intial position can accumulate errors very quickly due to wheel slipping and other inaccuracies. Thus, a reliable localization technique is necessary to periodically fix the rover’s position in its map. This localization is performed by a separate algorithm that uses the above-described method as a first estimate. It then compares that estimated position and the local terrain map to stored terrain maps of the surrounding area. It recursively examines possibilities of how the rover could be located to generate the terrain map around as in fact observed and quickly zeroes in on the rover’s true position by comparing the positions of the obstacles around the rover from its point of view to the terrain map that is stored in memory. LMR Coordination and Cooperation The distribution of tasks between the various rovers in the convoy will be handled automatically, with the possibility of an emergency human operator override if communication with the rovers is maintained. The scientific goals and objectives are provided by humans at the base using such tools as RCW (Rover Control Workstation). The central rover will use its artificial intelligence capabilities to continually generate the best plan for the accomplishment of the assigned goals. The software used for actually implementing the decision-making system will most likely be a derivative of the ASPEN (Automated Scheduling and Planning Environment) system, which is a framework for using all information at the rover’s disposal to automatically update its plan of low-level steps towards accomplishing its goals. The ASPEN system uses an iterative repair algorithm, as described above, to resolve conflicts between various scheduled activities and constraints posed by the environment and by the state of the rover. However, there are several different possible modes of organizing the autonomous decision-making process and splitting responsibilities between the centralized main computer and the less powerful computers on the LMRs. The approaches include a completely centralized one, a distributed processing method, and a method based upon the “auction” model of completely localized planning by competing LMRs.
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Author: Artem Gleyzer (agleyzer@mit.edu) |
Copyright
© 2000 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Comments and questions to mission2004-students@mit.edu Last updated: 10 December, 2000 |