Mars microrover navigation: performance evaluation and enhancement

In 1996, NASA will launch the Mars Pathfinder spacecraft, which will carry an 11 kg rover to explore the immediate vicinity of the lander. To assess the capabilities of the rover, the authors have constructed a new microrover testbed consisting of the Rocky 3.2 vehicle and an indoor test arena containing Mars analog terrain and overhead cameras for automatic, real-time tracking of the true rover position and heading. In this paper, the authors present initial performance evaluation results obtained with this testbed. The authors first decompose rover navigation into four major functions: goal designation, rover localization, hazard detection, and path selection. The authors then describe the Mars Pathfinder approach to each function, present results to date of evaluating the performance of each function, and outline their approach to enhancing performance for future missions. The results show key limitations in the quality of rover localization, the speed of hazard detection, and the ability of behavior control algorithms for path selection to negotiate the rock frequencies likely to be encountered on Mars.