Mars Exploration Rovers 2004-2013: Evolving Operational Tactics Driven by Aging Robotic Systems

Townsend, Julie; Seibert, Michael; Bellutta, P.; Ferguson, Eric; Forgette, Daniel; Herman, J. A.; Justice, Heather; Keuneke, Matthew S.; Sosland, Rebekah; Stroupe, Ashley W.; Wright, John R.

doi:10.2514/6.2014-1884

Cited by 7 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…Another effect of actuator failure on the rover Spirit was the increased effort when operating on Mars with a failing actuator ( Townsend et al, 2014 ). The effects of the FC, LR, and DR approaches on the robot and module effort (simulated as torque values for the actuators) were explored.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity exceeded their goal life span before succumbing to the limitations of their actuators. During operation, both rovers suffered actuator failure, resulting in altered control strategies ( Townsend et al, 2014) . Both rovers drove backward during their deployment to reduce the impact of these failures: Spirit to overcome a misaligned wheel, while Opportunity was reducing the load on a failing actuator ( Showstack, 2010) .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Enabling robustness to failure with modular field robots

Cordie,

Roberts,

Dunbabin

et al. 2024

Front. Robot. AI

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Actuator failure on a remotely deployed robot results in decreased efficiency or even renders it inoperable. Robustness to these failures will become critical as robots are required to be more independent and operate out of the range of repair. To address these challenges, we present two approaches based on modular robotic architecture to improve robustness to actuator failure of both fixed-configuration robots and modular reconfigurable robots. Our work uses modular reconfigurable robots capable of modifying their style of locomotion and changing their designed morphology through ejecting modules. This framework improved the distance travelled and decreased the effort to move through the environment of simulated and physical robots. When the deployed robot was allowed to change its locomotion style, it showed improved robustness to actuator failure when compared to a robot with a fixed controller. Furthermore, a robot capable of changing its locomotion and design morphology statistically outlasted both tests with a fixed morphology. Testing was carried out using a gazebo simulation and validated in multiple tests in the field. We show for the first time that ejecting modular failed components can improve the overall mission length.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Enabling robustness to failure with modular field robots

Cordie,

Roberts,

Dunbabin

et al. 2024

Front. Robot. AI

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity far exceeded their life expectancy but at the end of their mission began to reach the limits of their actuators and sensors. In the course of their mission both suffered failures resulting in the need to change control strategies as noted by Townsend et al [2]. These changes included driving both platforms backwards for large parts of their deployment.…”

Section: Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Detailed in Cordie et al [32,33] the generated controller calculates a desired body velocity before decomposing this velocity to individual module velocities see Eqs. (1) and (2). Each wheel independently maintains its own desired velocities and heading, Fig.…”

Section: Controllermentioning

confidence: 99%

Modular Field Robots for Extraterrestrial Exploration

Cordie

Steindl

Dungavell

et al. 2020

Adv. Astronaut. Sci. Technol.

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Modular design methodology enables rapid reconfigurability for functional changes, robustness to failures and space utilisation for transportation. In the case of planetary exploration robots, there is promise in modular robots that are able to reconfigure themselves for exploration of unknown terrains. This paper presents a design and controller architecture for modular field robots that can be rapidly assembled in a variety of functional configurations. A key challenge of building a functional robot out of modular units is the ability to seamlessly add, remove and replace individual units to enable functional improvements as well as adapt to terrain requirements. We present a representative modular wheel design and a distributed controller architecture able to create a range of bespoke multi-wheeled configurations capable of traversal on a variety of terrains during simulated failure scenarios. The self-contained wheeled unit has energy, computation communication, and actuation modules and does not require any modification or physical customization in the field during deployment enabling a seamless plug and play behaviour. The hierarchical control structure runs a body controller node that decomposes a whole body motion requested from a higher level planner to generate a sequence of actuation goals for each of the modules, while a local controller node running on each of the modules ensures that the desired actuation is adapted to the configuration, load and terrain characteristics.

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The Dawning of the Ethics of Environmental Robots

Wynsberghe

Donhauser

2017

Sci Eng Ethics

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Environmental scientists and engineers have been exploring research and monitoring applications of robotics, as well as exploring ways of integrating robotics into ecosystems to aid in responses to accelerating environmental, climatic, and biodiversity changes. These emerging applications of robots and other autonomous technologies present novel ethical and practical challenges. Yet, the critical applications of robots for environmental research, engineering, protection and remediation have received next to no attention in the ethics of robotics literature to date. This paper seeks to fill that void, and promote the study of environmental robotics. It provides key resources for further critical examination of the issues environmental robots present by explaining and differentiating the sorts of environmental robotics that exist to date and identifying unique conceptual, ethical, and practical issues they present.

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Mars Exploration Rovers 2004-2013: Evolving Operational Tactics Driven by Aging Robotic Systems

Cited by 7 publications

References 5 publications

Enabling robustness to failure with modular field robots

Enabling robustness to failure with modular field robots

Modular Field Robots for Extraterrestrial Exploration

The Dawning of the Ethics of Environmental Robots

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