Mary L.

Sandy
Headquarters, Washington, D.C. June 21 , 1990
(Phone: 202/453-2754)

Jim Doyle
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
(Phone: 818/354-5011)

RELEASE: 90-85

NASA'S JET PROPULSION LABORATORY TESTS PLANETARY ROVER

Scientists and engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion

Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., have begun an extensive period of
field testing of a semi-autonomous navigation system on a
computer-operated robotic vehicle prototype for possible use in
future planetary explorations.

Brian Wilcox, supervisor of the Robotic Sensing and

Perception Group, said the summer-long testing program would be
carried out mostly in the Pasadena Arroyo, a dry river bed,
adjacent to JPL.

Developing new technologies, including a new generation of

planetary rovers, is seen as critical to the success and cost
effectiveness of the Space Exploration Initiative (SEI) program
announced by President Bush last July. The Planetary Rover
project will develop systems for the manned and unmanned vehicles
needed for surface transportation.

Surface transportation systems required by SEI include

unmanned rovers for outpost site survey and for regional robotic
exploration and science, piloted rovers for transportation both
locally and long range, and unmanned cargo handling, construction
and mining.

Increased traverse distance, longer life and autonomous

operations are required for the unmanned roving vehicles for the
program. Traverse distances of up to several kilometers per
Earth day and a mission life from 1 to 5 years are desired for
the next generation of robotic exploring vehicles.

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The operation of an autonomous unmanned rover in a location

remote from the Earth, such as the surface of Mars, with
round-trip communications time, at the speed of light, between 8
and 40 minutes, involves an entirely unproven technology.

Two advanced forms of unmanned rover navigation are under

development at JPL. They are computer-aided remote driving
(CARD) and semi-autonomous navigation (SAN).

The CARD technique allows a human operator to remotely drive

a vehicle by planning and identifying an extended (10s of meters)
obstacle-free path with a three dimensional display of images
from stereo cameras aboard the vehicle. The path then is
transmitted to the vehicle for atonomous execution.

The SAN technique allows a human operator to determine a

nominal extended route (10s of kilometers) for the vehicle, with
the specific path taken by the vehicle around local obstacles
determined automatically from the rover's sensor data and stored
data base.

JPL's prototype rover made its first, continuous

semi-autonomous navigation (SAN) traverse, in rough natural
terrain, on May 7, 1990.

The navigation testbed is a six-wheeled, three-body,

articulated vehicle the experimenters call Robby. It is about
13-feet long, 5-feet wide and more than 6.5-feet high. Its
35-inch diameter wheels and articulated body permit it to go over
obstacles a meter high.

The 2,500-pound vehicle contains two computer systems, one

for perception and planning and one for control of the actuators
in the wheel drive and arm control. The robotic arm has six
links and 6 degrees of freedom with an additional pivot axis and
gripper providing two more degrees of freedom.

There are four cameras on the pan-tilt head capable of

stereo correlation to provide three-dimensional images of
objects. A motor generator provides 3,500 watts of power and
batteries provide 24 volts.

Other parts of the rover program include the development of

advanced mission operation, mobility and power technology at JPL;
the development of an innovative legged vehicle concept, as
opposed to using wheels, at Carnegie Mellon University in
Pittsburgh, Pa.; mission operations research at the Ames
Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.; and piloted rover
technology at the Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.

- end -
- 3 -

EDITORS NOTE: Available to the media only are two

photographs of the planetary rover:

Black and White: 90-H-471

Color: 90-HC-447

Material can be obtained by calling NASA Headquarters

Audio-Visual Branch, 202/453-8375.

A two-minute video clip to accompany this release will air

on June 22 at 1 p.m. EDT on NASA Select television - SATCOM F2R,
transponder 13, 72 degrees W. Longitude. This videoclip can also
be obtained by contacting the NASA Headquarters Audio-Visual
Branch.

NASA news releases and other NASA information is available

electronically on CompuServe and GEnie, the General Electric
Network for Information Exchange. For information on CompuServe,
call 1-800-848-8199 and ask for representative 176. For
information on GEnie, call 1-800-638-9636.

TO: MDS/PRA Group

1615 L Street, N.W. - Suite 100
Washington, D.C. 20036

DATE & TIME: JUNE 21, 1990

ORDERED BY: Edward Campion

NASA Headquarters/LMD
400 Maryland Avenue, SW
Washington, DC 20546 PHONE: 202/453-8400

PROJECT TITLE: Release No: 90-85

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