The MVACS Robotic Arm Camera

Keller, H. U.; Hartwig, H.; Kramm, R.; Koschny, D.; Markiewicz, W. J.; Thomas, N.; Fernades, M.; Smith, Peter H.; Reynolds, R.; Lemmon, M. T.; Weinberg, J.; Marcialis, R. L.; Tanner, R.; Boss, B. J.; Oquest, C.; Paige, D. A.

doi:10.1029/1999je001123

Cited by 15 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…In the mid-to late-1990s, the deployable hand lens concept was adapted for spacecraft headed to Mars in the form of the RAC aboard Mars Polar Lander and Phoenix (Keller et al 2001(Keller et al , 2008, and the MER MI cameras aboard the rovers Spirit and Opportunity . Arriving in January 2004, the MER MI cameras quickly revolutionized Mars science, ending a 30-year discussion (e.g., Sharp and Malin 1984) as to whether sand-sized, windblown particles actually occur on Mars (Herkenhoff et al 2004a).…”

Section: Design Motivatorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Curiosity’s Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) Investigation

et al. 2012

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The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) investigation will use a 2-megapixel color camera with a focusable macro lens aboard the rover, Curiosity, to investigate the stratigraphy and grain-scale texture, structure, mineralogy, and morphology of geologic materials in northwestern Gale crater. Of particular interest is the stratigraphic record of a ∼5 km thick layered rock sequence exposed on the slopes of Aeolis Mons (also known as Mount Sharp). The instrument consists of three parts, a camera head mounted on the turret at the end of a robotic arm, an electronics and data storage assembly located inside the rover body, and a calibration target mounted on the robotic arm shoulder azimuth actuator housing. MAHLI can acquire in-focus images at working distances from ∼2.1 cm to infinity. At the minimum working distance, image pixel scale is ∼14 µm per pixel and very coarse silt grains can be resolved. At the working distance of the Mars Exploration Rover Microscopic Imager cameras aboard Spirit and Opportunity, MAHLI's resolution is comparable at ∼30 µm per pixel. Onboard capabilities include autofocus, autoexposure, sub-framing, video imaging, Bayer pattern color interpolation, lossy and lossless compression, focus merging of up to 8 focus stack images, white light and longwave ultraviolet (365 nm) illumination of nearby subjects, and 8 gigabytes of non-volatile memory data storage.

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Section: Design Motivatorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Curiosity’s Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) Investigation

et al. 2012

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“…These observations should enable the identification of ejecta layers. The imaging results from the Remote Arm Camera on the Mars Polar Lander are therefore eagerly awaited; with ∼25-µm pixels (Keller et al 1999) it should be quite possible to recognize ∼300-µm-diameter particles as being round. With appropriate lighting, it may even be possible to identify such particles as having a glassy texture.…”

Section: Prospects For Observationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microtektites on Mars: Volume and Texture of Distal Impact Ejecta Deposits

Lorenz¹

2000

Icarus

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“…In an effort to increase the dexterity and available work volume for the placement of multiple science instruments, the Mars Polar Lander mission carried a four degree-of-freedom robot arm to be used for soil trenching and digging as well as placement of the Robotic Arm Camera (RAC) [2].…”

Section: History Of Remote Space-based Manipulation Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vision guided manipulation for planetary robotics — position control

Nickels

DiCicco

Bajracharya

et al. 2010

Robotics and Autonomous Systems

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Manipulation systems for planetary exploration operate under severe restrictions. They need to integrate vision and manipulation to achieve the reliability, safety, and predictability required of expensive systems operating on remote planets. They also must operate on very modest hardware that is shared with many other systems, and must operate without human intervention.Typically such systems employ calibrated stereo cameras and calibrated manipulators to achieve precision of the order of one centimeter with respect to instrument placement activities. This paper presents three complementary approaches to vision guided manipulation designed to robustly achieve high precision in manipulation. These approaches are described and compared, both in simulation and on hardware.In-situ estimation and adaptation of the manipulator and/or camera models in these methods account for changes in the system configuration, thus ensuring consistent precision for the life of the mission. All three methods provide severalfold increases in accuracy of manipulator positioning over the standard flight approach.

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The MVACS Robotic Arm Camera

Cited by 15 publications

References 4 publications

Curiosity’s Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) Investigation

Curiosity’s Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) Investigation

Microtektites on Mars: Volume and Texture of Distal Impact Ejecta Deposits

Vision guided manipulation for planetary robotics — position control

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