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Artemis: Software Simulates Mars Rover Mobility to Keep Rovers Rolling

Mobility is a crucial part of a rover's mission on the surface of Mars. The ability to travel across the terrain without becoming stuck is a problem researchers have been trying to solve for some time. Now, a team from MIT's Robotic Mobility Group, Washington University, and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has developed a model called Artemis that accurately simulates rover mobility over various types of soil and terrain. The model works a lot like a video game. A user plugs in commands to, for example, move the simulated rover forward a certain distance - instructions similar to those that NASA engineers give to rovers on Mars. The simulation then predicts how the rover will move, based on the underlying soil properties, vehicle characteristics, and a terrain's incline.

Topics:
Aerospace Automation Motion Control Robotics Simulation Software Software

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    Transcript

    00:00:07 The use of rovers to explore the surface of Mars is extremely relevant and helpful for science purposes because it gives us the unique opportunity to be on the surface of the planet, and being able to do science on site. Although science is the primary purpose of the missions it's

    00:00:22 still extremely important that we are able to navigate in a safe way. And when I say "safe" I mean in a way that it is safe for the instruments on the rover and its safe for the rover itself. In fact the one thing that we want to avoid is for the rover to get stuck because in that scenario, basically we

    00:00:37 lose the ability to sample different areas of the planets and will therefore limit our science to a single location which basically defies the purpose of having a rover on the surface of Mars. For this reason we are studying the performance of a single wheel in order to understand how how this wheel

    00:00:54 develops traction on the most challenging terrains. The experiments that we perform in our lab are used to collect data regarding torque and sinkage that the wheel experiences while driver on soft terrain. We use this information to calibrate our software, which is called Artemis, in order to

    00:01:13 simulate the drives of the rover. Then we use this software to simulate the drive on the surface of Mars and we can use the information coming back from the real rover on Mars in order to understand how well we did and if we need to make any modifi- cation to the model. One of the worst things that

    00:01:30 can happen is that you keep going when actually you should have stopped because sinkage is a vicious affect. Once you start sinking down, the more you try to get out of the situation, the more you usually end up sinking. Fortunately we have all these sensors on the rover that give us the opportunity to monitor

    00:01:48 the situation. Unfortunately not in real time because there is a time delay between Earth and Mars. But, at the same time, it is unique to have the opportunity to have the data coming back from Mars and being able to analyze it and essentially make sure that the model that we are using to

    00:02:04 simulate the drive, is realistic and its actually working.