The Cyborg Astrobiologist: first field experience

Abstract

We present results from the first geological field tests of the 'Cyborg Astrobiologist', which is a wearable computer and video camcorder system that we are using to test and train a computer-vision system towards having some of the autonomous decision-making capabilities of a field-geologist and field-astrobiologist. The Cyborg Astrobiologist platform has thus far been used for testing and development of these algorithms and systems: robotic acquisition of quasi-mosaics of images, real-time image segmentation, and real-time determination of interesting points in the image mosaics. The hardware and software systems function reliably, and the computer-vision algorithms are adequate for the first field tests. In addition to the proof-of-concept aspect of these field tests, the main result of these field tests is the enumeration of those issues that we can improve in the future, including: first, detection and accounting for shadows caused by 3D jagged edges in the outcrop; second, reincorporation of more sophisticated texture-analysis algorithms into the system; third, creation of hardware and software capabilities to control the camera's zoom lens in an intelligent manner; and fourth, development of algorithms for interpretation of complex geological scenery. Nonetheless, despite these technical inadequacies, this Cyborg Astrobiologist system, consisting of a camera-equipped wearable-computer and its computer-vision algorithms, has demonstrated its ability of finding genuinely interesting points in real-time in the geological scenery, and then gathering more information about these interest points in an automated manner.

The Cyborg Astrobiologist: porting from a wearable computer to the Astrobiology Phone-cam

“…The modularity offered by NEO and the encapsulation tools within NEO facilitates the programming required for complex tasks such as the image segmentation and uncommon maps that we have implemented here. This site contains characteristics similar to those found at sites near Rivas Vaciamadrid and Riba de Santiuste, both in Spain, which have been studied previously with the wearable computer as part of the Cyborg Astrobiologist research project (McGuire et al 2004(McGuire et al , 2005. Fig.…”

“…In our previous work, we have demonstrated the use of a wearable computer system, the Cyborg Astrobiologist, capable of testing computer-vision algorithms as part of semiautonomous exploration systems at remote geological and astrobiological field sites (McGuire et al 2004(McGuire et al , 2005. In our previous work, we have demonstrated the use of a wearable computer system, the Cyborg Astrobiologist, capable of testing computer-vision algorithms as part of semiautonomous exploration systems at remote geological and astrobiological field sites (McGuire et al 2004(McGuire et al , 2005.…”

The Cyborg Astrobiologist: matching of prior textures by image compression for geological mapping and novelty detection

“…These algorithms were tested at astrobiological field sites using mobile computing platforms -originally (McGuire et al 2004(McGuire et al , 2005a(McGuire et al ,b, 2010) with a wearable computer connected to a digital video camera, but more recently (Bartolo et al 2007;Gross et al 2009McGuire et al 2010;Wendt et al 2009) with a phone camera connected wirelessly to a local or remote server computer. The image features used in the novelty detection and rarity mapping in prior work were based only upon RGB or HSI color.…”

Autonomous science during large‐scale robotic survey

“…Second, onboard analysis can choose traverse paths to maximize science utility. It can prioritize informative locations such as local anomalies, bypassing redundant measurements and quickly surveying large areas (Fink, 2006; McGuire, Ormö, Martínez, Manfredi, Elvira, et al, 2005). Finally, onboard science analysis can select or summarize data for bandwidth‐restricted downlink opportunities (Hayden, Chien, Thompson, & Castano, 2010; Thompson, Smith, & Wettergreen, 2008).…”