Four is Enough

SR2 (Solar Rover-2) is a 22kg four-wheeled rover designed and built at the University of Oklahoma in collaboration with Malin Space Science Systems. Current Mars rovers use the six wheeled rocker-bogie system that is designed to traverse extreme terrain. The SR2 rover has a more simplified mobility system that alows it to traverse many of the same obstacles while reducing the overall mass. It was designed to better understand what is required to autonomously navigate 1km/day over Mars-like terrain. This paper describes the results of a recent field test conducted in June 2006 in the Anza-Borrego desert of Southern California where SR2 autonomously traversed 5km.