CLARAty Coupled Layer Architecture for Robotic Autonomy

1
CLARAty Coupled Layer Architecture for Robotic
Autonomy
Mars Technology Program FY05 Year End Review
Base Technology NRA Regional Mobility

• Issa A.D. Nesnas
• Mobility and Robotic Systems Section (347)
• Jet Propulsion Laboratory

October 6-7, 2005 Hilton Pasadena
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CLARAty

• Objectives
• Facilitate infusion of performance-enhancing
  navigation and manipulation technologies into MSL
  flight system
• Provide a flexible framework for integrating and
  comparing competing technologies on all research
  rovers Rocky8, FIDO, Rocky7, K9, and FIDO5

Funding Profile (K)
Task Manager Issa A. D. Nesnas (818)
354-9709 nesnas_at_jpl.nasa.gov Participating
Organizations JPL, Ames Research Center,
Carnegie Mellon, U. of Minnesota, RMSA
Universities Facilities Rocky 8, FIDO, Rocky
7, K9, FIDO 5, ATRVs, CLARAty test bed, ROAMS,
Maestro, JPL Mars Yard
FY03-FY06 Milestones FY03 mobility and
navigation for long traverse FY04 pose
estimation, tracking, and manipulation for
instrument placement FY05-FY06 advanced
capabilities integrated on real (Rocky 8, FIDO)
and simulated rovers (ROAMS)
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Problem Statement
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Problem Statement

• Problem
• Lack of integrated and validated robotic
  technologies prior to flight infusion
• Redundant infrastructure for robotic projects /
  platforms
• No framework to capture technologies from
  universities and other centers
• No interoperable software among robotic platforms
  (e.g Rocky 8, FIDO, Rocky 7, K9, ATRV)
• Key Challenges
• Robots have different physical characteristics
• Robots have different hardware architectures
• Contributions made by multiple institutions
• Advanced research requires a flexible framework
• Software must support various platforms
• Lack of a common low-cost robotic platforms
• Software must be unrestricted and accessible
  (ITAR and IP)
• Software must integrate legacy code bases

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Mission Relevance and State-of-the-Art

• Mission Relevance
• Enable integration and validation of technologies
  
• Enable technology transfer to flight from a
  single integrated source
• Capture university technologies for future
  missions
• Make research rovers viable test bed for flight
• Adapt easily to future rovers with different
  hardware architectures
• Is relevant to MSL, AFL, MSR missions and lunar
  robotic missions
• State-of-the-art
• Within NASA robotic software is often unique for
  each platform. JTARS (ESMD) investigating
  interoperability among robots.
• Outside NASA DARPA (JAUS), ESA (OROCOS), LAAS,
  USC (Player/Stage), Robocup (Miro), U. Penn
  (ROCI), U. Texas (OSCAR).
• Similar in goal but different in scope
• Different technical approaches similar to
  previous NASA efforts
• Not directly applicable to NASA robots with a
  wide range of computational capabilities
• Interoperability limited to high-level
  encapsulation

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Process and Collaborations
JPL Internal Programs
Other NASA Programs
RTD, MDS, DRDF
Legacy AlgorithmsFlight Algorithms
Technology Tasks
Technology Tasks
Technology Tasks
Competed Mars Technology Program
CLARAty
Flight FocusedTechnology Programs
NASA Centers andUniversities Technology Tasks
NASA Centers andUniversities Technology Tasks
TechnologyValidation Tasks
NASA Centers andUniversities Technology Tasks
Jet Propulsion Lab
NASA Centers andUniversities Technology Tasks
TechnologyValidation Tasks
NASA ARC
CMU
U. Minnesota
Rover Hardware
Operator InterfaceMaestro
Rover Simulation ROAMS
Science InstrumentsSimulation
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FY05 CLARAty Developers (Core Team)

• Jet Propulsion Laboratory
• Antonio Diaz Calderon
• Tara Estlin (Deputy Manager)
• John Guineau
• Won Soo Kim
• Richard Madison (Delivery Lead)
• Michael McHenry (Delivery Lead)
• Hari Das Nayar
• Mihail Pivtoraiko
• Issa A.D. Nesnas (Task Manager)
• Babak Sapir
• Erik Schweller
• I-hsiang Shu

• NASA Ames Research Center
• Clay Kunz (Center Lead)
• Eric Park
• Susan Lee
• Carnegie Mellon
• David Apfelbaum
• Nick Melchior
• Reid Simmons (Center Lead)
• University of Minnesota
• Stergios Roumeliotis (Center Lead)

For the complete list of developers and
contributors seehttp//claraty.jpl.nasa.gov -gt
Project -gt Team
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Technical Approach
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Technical Approach

• Capture requirements from domain experts
• Use global perspective across domains (motion,
  vision, estimation, navigation)
• Identify recurring patterns and common
  infrastructure therein
• Use domain expert to guide design
• Define proper interfaces for each subsystem
• Develop generic framework to support various
  implementations
• Adapt legacy implementations to validate
  framework
• Encapsulate when re-factoring is not feasible or
  affordable
• Develop regression tests where feasible
• Test on multiple robotic platforms and study
  limitations
• Feed learned experience back into the design
• Review and update to address limitations
• After several iterations one hopes to have
  achieved a truly reusable infrastructure

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A Two-Layer Architecture
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Interoperability Software Hardware
SRI Stereo
CAPABILITY Navigation
ARC Stereo
Sojouner PoseFIDO 3DEKF 6D EKF
Stereovision JPL_STEREO
Stereovision JPL_STEREO
Stereovision JPL_STEREO
Pose Estimation MER_SAPP
Obstacle Avoidance MORPHIN
Drivemaps
Pose Estimation MER_SAPP
Obstacle Avoidance MORPHIN
Pose Estimation MER_SAPP
Pose Estimation MER_SAPP
Obstacle Avoidance MORPHIN
GESTALT
CLARAty Reusable Software
Robot Adaptation
QNX
VxWorks
Linux
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Multi-level Abstraction Model
Use abstractions
Interface at different levels
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Statement of Work, Milestones and Deliverables
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Statement of Work (all years)

• Develop a unified and reusable design of robotic
  software for I/O control, motion control and
  coordination, locomotion, manipulation,
  localization, navigation, science analysis, rover
  control, and planning.
• Peer review design
• Establish collaborations with other NASA centers
  and universities
• Iterate on the design and develop prototype
  software
• Adapt to a number of platforms (Rocky 7, Rocky 8,
  FIDO, K9, ATRV)
• Adapt to high-fidelity simulators (ROAMS) and
  interface with science operator (Maestro)
• Establish a multi-center remotely accessible test
  facility
• Clear both ITAR and IP to effectively share
  software across the development community
• Establish a process for deploying software to NRA
  recipients
• Work with technology providers to capture
  technologies into framework
• Investigate low-cost rover alternatives for
  testing of new technologies
• Integrate component technologies into framework,
  mature technologies, test, and deliver for formal
  validation
• Capture requirements from flight project and
  lessons learned from validation.
• Review and update design to accommodate new
  capabilities for future deliveries

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Milestones Highlights (all years)

• FY00
• Design of the two-layer architecture
• Peer review of the CLARAty architecture
• FY01
• Prototype CLARAty software
• Demonstrate Decision Layer / Functional Layer
  operations by visiting multiple science targets.
• Demonstrate interoperability by running on both
  Rocky 8 and Rocky 7 in the JPL Mars Yard
• FY02
• Establish a multi-center software development
  environment (CMU, ARC)
• Demonstrate integrated autonomous capabilities in
  a 60 m traverse in rough terrain (path planning,
  pose estimation, and navigation)
• Extend adapted platforms to FIDO and K9
• Demonstrate locomotion with high-fidelity
  simulator (ROAMS)
• FY03
• Deliver technologies for formal validation (MSL
  focused technology)
• Demonstrate interoperability of competing
  algorithms on multiple platforms
• Pose estimation using EKF vs. visual odometry vs.
  wheel odometry on Rocky 8, FIDO, and ROAMS
• Navigation (Morphin local D one of the above
  pose estimators) on Rocky 8 and FIDO
• End-to-end integration of WITS, CLARAty, and
  ROAMS
• FY04

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FY05 Milestones/Schedule
Cancelled due to mismatch between homogeneous
trans/quaternions
Delayed due to
Implementation behind schedule due to
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FY05 Deliverables
LT Long-range Traverse Validation IP
Instrument Placement Validation
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FY05 AccomplishmentsSignificant Events
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Summary of Significant Events
Significant Event I From research to flight
Competed Mars Technology Program
CLARAty
Instrument PlacementValidation
Flight MER (06)
Visual Target Tracking (ARC, JPL)
Significant Event II From flight to research to
flight
Flight MER (04)
CLARAty
Flight MSL (09)
Long Range Validation
GESTALT Navigator
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Significant Event I Visual Target Tracking
Infusion into MER

• Wonsoo Kim (lead)
• Developed Falcon Tracker through a competed MTP
  task
• Richard Madison, Max Bajracharya, Esfandiar
  Bandari, Maria Bualat, and Issa Nesnas
• Integrated Falcon Visual Tracker into CLARAty
• Adapted and tested on Rocky 8
• Delivered to Instrument Placement Validation task
• Technology matured and prepared for infusion into
  flight
• Technology accepted for infusion
• Importance
• Critical element for single-cycle instrument
  placement and multi-target instrument placement
• Integration with CLARAty enabled comparison
  against other algorithms

Rocky 8
Target Tracking
MER
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Significant Event I Visual Target Tracking
Infusion into MER

• Wonsoo Kim (lead)
• Developed Falcon Tracker through a competed MTP
  task
• Richard Madison, Max Bajracharya, Esfandiar
  Bandari, Maria Bualat, and Issa Nesnas
• Integrated Falcon Visual Tracker into CLARAty
• Adapted and tested on Rocky 8
• Delivered to Instrument Placement Validation task
• Technology matured and prepared for infusion into
  flight
• Technology accepted for infusion
• Importance
• Critical element for single-cycle instrument
  placement and multi-target instrument placement
• Integration with CLARAty enabled comparison
  against other algorithms

Rocky 8
Target Tracking
MER
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Significant Event II MER Navigation infusion
into CLARAty

• Mike McHenry (lead), I-hsiang Shu
• Integrated the MER GESTALT navigator into CLARAty
  
• Obstacle detection and avoidance
• Traversability mapping
• Stereo processing
• Adapted to ROAMS simulation
• Adapted to FIDO rover
• Delivered to Long Range Traverse Validation task
• Maturing MER navigation technology
• Integration into CLARAty enables
• Characterization and validation
• Deployment on JPL research rovers
• Deployment on high-fidelity simulations
• Importance
• Navigation is necessary for long-range traverses
• Integration with CLARAty enables comparison
  against other algorithms
• Integration with ROAMS enables controlled
  experiments with varying pose estimates and
  terrain difficulty
• Integration and validation mature algorithm for
  MSL infusion.

MER
ROAMS
FIDO
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Significant Event II MER Navigation infusion
into CLARAty

• Mike McHenry (lead), I-hsiang Shu
• Integrated the MER GESTALT navigator into CLARAty
  
• Obstacle detection and avoidance
• Traversability mapping
• Stereo processing
• Adapted to ROAMS simulation
• Adapted to FIDO rover
• Delivered to Long Range Traverse Validation task
• Maturing MER navigation technology
• Integration into CLARAty enables
• Characterization and validation
• Deployment on JPL research rovers
• Deployment on high-fidelity simulations
• Importance
• Navigation is necessary for long-range traverses
• Integration with CLARAty enables comparison
  against other algorithms
• Integration with ROAMS enables controlled
  experiments with varying pose estimates and
  terrain difficulty
• Integration and validation mature algorithm for
  MSL infusion.

MER
ROAMS
FIDO
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Navigation in ROAMS
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Significant Event III End-to-end Single-Cycle
Instrument Placement

• Richard Madison (lead), Wonsoo Kim
• Integrated end-to-end single-cycle instrument
  placement components
• Demonstrated autonomous operation on Rocky 8
• Falcon Visual Tracker
• Adaptable image-based camera handoff between
• Panoramic (17 FOV) and navigation cameras (45
  FOV)
• Navigation and hazard cameras (90 FOV)
• Morphin navigator
• Wheel odometry
• Rover base placement
• Manipulation (5DOF)
• Technology maturation of integrated single-cycle
  instrument placement
• Integrates vision-based target hand-off from
  various cameras
• Incorporates adaptive window scaling based on
  distance - improvements that resulted from
  validation
• Importance
• SCIP increases science return by saving the
  mission 2 sols out of 3 per placement. Key
  component for multiple instrument placements.
• Framework to plug in different technologies for
  validation of end-to-end capability

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Significant Event III End-to-end Single-Cycle
Instrument Placement

• Richard Madison (lead), Wonsoo Kim
• Integrated end-to-end single-cycle instrument
  placement components
• Demonstrated autonomous operation on Rocky 8
• Falcon Visual Tracker
• Adaptable image-based camera handoff between
• Panoramic (17 FOV) and navigation cameras (45
  FOV)
• Navigation and hazard cameras (90 FOV)
• Morphin navigator
• Wheel odometry
• Rover base placement
• Manipulation (5DOF)
• Technology maturation of integrated single-cycle
  instrument placement
• Integrates vision-based target hand-off from
  various cameras
• Incorporates adaptive window scaling based on
  distance - improvements that resulted from
  validation
• Importance
• SCIP increases science return by saving the
  mission 2 sols out of 3 per placement. Key
  component for multiple instrument placements.
• Framework to plug in different technologies for
  validation of end-to-end capability

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FY05 AccomplishmentsMilestones
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Level I Milestone Prepare CLARAty for R1.0
Release

• Developed new checkout and build system that is
  more maintainable, extendible, and efficient
• Uses a new database that is about 5 times faster
  to use
• Developed an automated nightly build system for 4
  targets (vxWorks, Linux)
• Nightly building 35 of eligible CLARAty modules
  (126 modules)
• Developed tools for automated regression tests
  (vxWorks, Linux)
• Revised several modules SiteDefs, transform,
  imu, and serial_port

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Level II Milestone Investigate flight
qualification

• Identified elements that make CLARAty a
  non-flight qualified architecture
• Met with key personnel from Flight Software
  Sections (313 and 316) (e.g., Wette, Meyer,
  Reinholtz)
• CLARAty slightly ahead as JPL is just defining
  the process for flight qualifying legacy and RD
  software based on Software Development Reqs V5.0
• Technology-wise CLARAty appears strong however,
  we needto convince project management and PEMs
  of its value andaddress how CLARAty would retire
  project risk
• Generating report to address following
  challenges
• Programmatic
• Provide closed-loop procedures to backup claims
  on functionality and reliability
• Develop risk management plans and project
  delivery schedule and budget
• Organize project-led reviews need to be ready
  and within projects integration range
• Seek higher classification (CLARAty classified as
  class D comparedto MER (class B/C) and Cassini
  (class B))
• Improve bug tracking and resolution process
• Technical
• Characterize performance/resource utilization for
  advertised capabilities
• Address common flight practices (C vs C,
  dynamic memory allocation, templates, STL,
  multiple inheritance)
• Address flight requirements for data logging
• Reduce 3rd party software that may be difficult
  to qualify such as ACE
• Division 31 reviewed and approved CLARAty
  software development procedures

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Other Important Accomplishments

• Linux on FIDO (John Guineau (lead) - Joint work
  with CLARAty Decision Layer Task)
• Demonstrated on FIDO real-time performance of
  Linux 2.6 with a hi-res timer patch
• Achieved 1000Hz control rates for 12 motors
• Demonstrated locomotion on the FIDO rover
• Continuous Steering Trajectories (Level II)
  (Antonio Diaz-Calderon (lead), Mihail Pivtoraiko,
  Tom Howard (CMU))
• Captured technology for arbitrary trajectories
  and continuous driving of rovers provided by A.
  Kelly - MTP NRA (CMU))
• Integrated with ROAMS and on Rocky 8
• Tested on VxWorks and Linux
• New Technologies in CLARAty
• Mesh registration (ARC)
• Instrument safety checker (ARC)
• Digging and trenching (SOOPS)
• Integrating TEMPEST (CMU)

FIDO Benchtop
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Unification of Mechanism Modeling
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Distributed Software Development
AFS Backbone
Authentication
...
CMU
JPL
ARC
U. Minnesota
K9
CLARAty
VxWorks
Rocky 8
3rd Party
Web
FIDO
Rocky 7
Number of employees and not FTEs
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Some CLARAty Statistics

• 400 modules in repository
• 20 increase in FY05
• 6 increase in FY04
• goal is to limit modules
• 50 modules are technology contributions (13)
• 1.28 million lines of C (FY04 0.5 million).
• Major increase due to incorporation of MER FSW
  and navigation
• Will revise and reduce
• Five adaptations
• Rocky 8, FIDO, Rocky 7, ATRV, K9, and Pluto
• 350 infrastructure and adaptation module are now
  classified EAR 734.7 (B) which can be released
  to the public ?

• CLARAty Integration Levels
• Level I Deposited
• Level II Encapsulated
• Level III Refactored
• Level IV Formally reviewed
• Level V Open source and fully
  documented

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TRL Evaluation (for Software 1/2)
35
TRL Evaluation (for Software 2/2)
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FY06 Plan

• Deploy new checkout/build process to all users to
  speed up the development process (Nov 2005)
• Capture changes from MER R9.2 into CLARAty (Dec
  2005)
• Integrate MSL version of Visual Odometry into
  CLARAty and test on a rover. This is necessary
  to carry out formal validation (Dec 2005)
• Integrate Visual Odometry with MSL GESTALT (Feb
  2006)
• Complete mechanism model and an adaptation of the
  rocker-bogie to ensure interoperability of
  advanced algorithms on various platforms (June
  2006).
• Continue revision of modules in preparation for
  wide dissemination (June 2006)
• Setup nightly regression testing on the CLARAty
  test bed to ensure runtime robustness of the code
  base (June 2006)

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Response for FY04 Year-End Review RFAs
FY04 Year End AI Status

• JPL currently defining procedure for flight
  qualification. Common practice on flight project
  evolves with the technologies and does not
  constitute flight software requirements. Biggest
  hurdle to overcome is that of perception and
  getting flight project buy-in
• Carried out some localized analysis. Performance
  overhead will vary across modules. General
  estimate is at 5 overhead
• Progress made toward developing tools for
  automated regression testing. Characterizing
  performance of each module will be developed over
  several years
• CLARAty Commerce classification has now been
  reduced to EAR 734.7 (B). This means ready for
  release. Awaiting IP clearance.
• CLARAty has been separated from its technology
  algorithm for clearing the infrastructure.

• The relationship of CLARAty to flight was not
  clear - it would be a better use of
  infrastructure resources if CLARAty could be
  flown "as is" CLARAty should be architected so
  that there are no obvious inconsistencies with
  flight software requirements.
• The task should quantify (or at least estimate)
  the performance reduction .
• The task should provide tools for measuring the
  computational costs of each module/algorithm.
• The task should get CLARAty approved for
  unrestricted release and source-available
• more useful to the community at large if a
  subset were available for exposing problems
  and developing bug fixes quickly, One approach
  is to break CLARAty into non-IP-protected modules
  with the most basic abstraction of sensors and
  actuators, perhaps supporting a very inexpensive
  commercial platform.

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Publications/Presentations to Date

• Professional Activities
• Invited speaker at the ICRA workshop on Software
  Engineering in Robotic, Barcelona Spain, April
  2005
• Co-organizing a Special Issue on Software
  Development and Integration in Robotics for the
  International Journal of Advanced Robotics
  Systems (invited guest editor)
• Publications
• R. Madison, Improved Target Tracking for Single
  Cycle Instrument Placement, submitted to the
  Aerospace Conference, Big Sky Montana, 2006
• I.A. Nesnas, R. Simmons, D. Gaines, C. Kunz, A.
  Diaz-Calderon, T. Estlin, R. Madison, J. Guineau,
  M. McHenry, I. Shu, and D. Apfelbaum, CLARAty
  Challenges and Steps Toward Reusable Robotic
  Software, submitted to the International Journal
  of Advanced Robotics, July 2005
• A. Diaz-Calderon, I.A. Nesnas, W.S. Kim, and H.
  Nayar, Towards a Unified Representation of
  Mechanisms for Robotic Control Software,
  submitted to the International Journal of
  Advanced Robotics, July 2005
• M.G. Bualat, C.G. Kunz , A.R. Wright, I.A.
  Nesnas, "Developing An Autonomy Infusion
  Infrastructure for Robotic Exploration,"
  Proceedings of the 2004 IEEE Aerospace
  Conference, Big Sky, Montana, March 6-14, 2004.
  pdf (14 pages, 0.7MB)
• R. Volpe, "Rover Functional Autonomy Development
  for the Mars Mobile Science Laboratory,"
  Proceedings of the 2003 IEEE Aerospace
  Conference, Big Sky, Montana, March 8-15, 2003.
  pdf (10 pages, 1.2MB) C. Urmson, R. Simmons,
  "Approaches for Heuristically Biasing RRT
  Growth," Proceedings IROS 2003, October, 2003
• I.A. Nesnas, A. Wright, M. Bajracharya, R.
  Simmons, T. Estlin, Won Soo Kim, "CLARAty An
  Architecture for Reusable Robotic Software," SPIE
  Aerosense Conference, Orlando, Florida, April
  2003. (730 KB)
• I.A. Nesnas, A. Wright, M. Bajracharya, R.
  Simmons, T. Estlin, "CLARAty and Challenges of
  Developing Interoperable Robotic Software,"
  invited to International Conference on
  Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Nevada,
  October 2003. (410 KB)
• C. Urmson, R. Simmons, I. Nesnas, "A Generic
  Framework for Robotic Navigation," Proceedings of
  the IEEE Aerospace Conference, Montana, March
  2003. (8 pages, 730KB)
• C. M. Chouinard, F. Fisher, D. M. Gaines, T.A.
  Estlin, S.R. Schaffer, "An Approach to Autonomous
  Operations for Remote Mobile Robotic
  Exploration," Proceedings of the IEEE Aerospace
  Conference, Montana, March 2003 (277 KB)
• T. Estlin, F. Fisher, D. Gaines, C. Chouinard, S.
  Schaffer, I. Nesnas, "Continuous Planning and
  Execution for an Autonomous Rover," Proceedings
  of the Third International NASA Workshop on
  Planning and Scheduling for Space, Houston, TX,
  Oct 2002. (168 KB)

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Issues and Resolutions
Issue Description
Solution Options/Schedule

• Significant portion of CLARAty funding comes from
  MSL which ends June 2006 while NRA program goes
  through FY08
• High current cost / user
• Intellectual Property and sharing of software
  among NASA centers and universities.

• Secure funds from base Mars Technology Program
• Switch to new system for setting up accounts.
  Requires technical support from various
  institutions
• Setup a consortium of all centers involved and
  draft a license agreeable to the consortium.

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Challenges Ahead

• Mature framework and robotic capabilities
• Investigate relevance to flight and define
  migration path
• Develop regression tests for long-term
  maintainability of robotic capabilities - very
  hard and open research topic
• Maintain current capabilities on existing
  platforms
• Develop new capabilities (e.g. continuous motion)
• Integrate new technologies from competed programs
• Develop a releasable version
• Develop formal documentation and tutorials
• Identify and deploy on low-cost rover platform
• Open source

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Summary

• Developed a unified and reusable software
  framework
• Deployed at multiple institutions
• Deployed on multiple heterogeneous robots
• Integrated multiple technologies from different
  institutions
• Delivered algorithms for formal validation
• Enabled new technology developments on multiple
  platforms
• Integrated flight algorithms for detailed
  performance characterization and operation on
  research rovers.
• Taking a technology from inception, to
  development in CLARAty, to validation, and now to
  integration into flight

42
Thank you
43
Back Up Slides
44
CLARAty Test bed
45
Supported Platforms
K9
Linux
x86
Rocky 8
Rocky 7
Ames
x86
VxWorks
VxWorks
ppc
ppc
JPL
JPL
FIDO
FIDO
ROAMS
ATRV
VxWorks
x86
Linux
Linux
x86
JPL
CMU
JPL
46
New in the CLARAty Test Bed
FIDO2 Stack
ATRV Jr.
Dexter ManipulatorBench top
Rocky 8 PPC Bench top
47
CLARAty Test Bed

• Added two new targets
• Rocky 8 bench top with PPC for MDS/MSL
• FIDO2 stack hybrid of Rocky 8 and FIDO
• Used by
• CLARAty Developers
• MSL Manipulation task
• Validation tasks
• MDS/MSL
• Remote Access
• Web camera
• Remote power cycle

48
Unification of Mechanism Modeling
STL-like tree class for use in the
Mechanism_Model software     - Implementation
includes  a tree-structured container class,
pre-order, post-order, sibling         and chain
iterators for traversing the tree, and methods
for manipulating and querying         the tree.
    - has application in modeling tree-topology
(open-chain) kinematics systems     - has
application in modeling hierarchical
multi-resolution component solid models for
collision checking     - tested on Solaris,
Linux and VxWorks Updated Transforms module in
CLARAty     - created QTrans class to use
Quaternions instead of rotation matrices to
perform spatial transformation        
operations more efficiently     - re-designed
transforms classes to enforce common API,
streamline object hierarchy and use        
Transforms based on rotation matrices,
quaternions, etc. interchangeably.     - tested
on Solaris, Linux and VxWorks Mechanism_Model
software     - prepared Requirements and Design
document for development of Mechanism_Model
software package.     - Implemented software to
read input XML data files using ME_Body, D-H
Craig or D-H Paul model         formats.
Converts all formats into a common internal
format and can save internal format         to a
common XML output file.     - Model objects (for
example ME_Body, ME_Joint, etc.) responsible for
extracting and         storing their respective
data.     - read in data from multiple XML files
and attache model objects to a single
tree-structured         mechanism model     -
implemented forward kinematics using iterative
and recursive algorithms.
49
Status of Navigation Algorithms in CLARAty
Simple Sim a simple and fast CMU simulator that
generates binary terrain for navigation testing
50
Level I Milestone - Key Challenges
Changes in FOV
1st Frame
37th Frame after 10 m
51
Video of Single-cycle Instrument Placement
Some delays attributed to late integration of new
5DOF arm on the rover