Settlement Site Selection and Exploration Through Hierarchical Roving

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Settlement Site Selection and Exploration
ThroughHierarchical Roving

• Gregory Konesky
• SGK Nanostructures, Inc.
• Rutgers Symposium on Lunar Settlements
• Rutgers University
• 3-8 June 2007

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• Man
• Or
• Machine?

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• Man
• Or
• Machine?
• YES!

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NASA JSC
Machines Scout Ahead Man Soon Follows
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NASA JSC
Man/Machine Synergism
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Remote Teleoperated Man/Machine Synergism
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• Teleoperation from the Moon
• or from the Earth
• Lunokhod 1 (Arrival 11/17/1970)
• Traveled 10.5 km
• Lunokhod 2 (Arrival 1/15/1973)
• Traveled 37 km
• Approx. 1.3 second one-way delay

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• On-site Rover Teleoperation for
• Settlement Site Selection and Exploration
• Provide Ground Truth

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• Given cost of 1,000,000 / day
• to support a Man on the Moon
• Economic Leveraging effect of
• Teleoperated Rovers

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NASA JPL
Rover Size Affects Capability
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Mars Exploration Rovers (MER) Sojourner Alpha
Proton X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) Deployment
Mechanism Imaging
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Spirit/Opportunity APXS Rock Abrasion
Tool Microscopic Imager Deployment
Mechanism Stereoscopic Panoramic
Cameras Navigation Cameras Hazard Avoidance
Cameras Miniature Thermal Emission
Spectrometer Mossbauer Spectrometer Magnetic
Particle Detection
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Sojourner (1997) Traveled a few hundred
meters Lasted a few months Contact
Lost Spirit/Opportunity (2004) Traveled tens of
kilometers Continue to operate today
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By chance, Sojourner landed in a strewn rock
field. It easily navigated around/between
them. Had Spirit/Opportunity landed there,
they might have had considerable navigation
difficulty.
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Small size can be an enabling asset When
proceeding into unknown terrain, it would be
ideal to have both benefits at your disposal ?
Hierarchical Roving
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Large/Small Rover Tradeoffs
Payload Capacity and Distribution - Small Rovers
spatially distribute payloads - Simultaneously
sense a much larger environment - Redundancy -
Navigation Agility - Levels of Hierarchy
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Small Rover Specialization
Imaging Sample Collection and Processing Analytica
l Manipulators Collective Interaction of
Multiple Small Rovers on a Common Task
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Small Rover Specialization - continued
Imaging Applications Navigation Terrain Mapping
and Understanding Hazard Identification Locating
Areas of Interest for Visit by Other
Rovers Standoff Self-Imaging Self-Rescue
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Carrier Rover Characteristics

• Deploy/Recover/Transport Small Rover Fleet
• Communications Relay Link between
• Command Center(s) and Small Rover Fleet
• Recharge Small Rover Batteries

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Traditional Approach
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Distributed Capability Approach
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Operational Scenarios Identify Region of
Interest
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Sample Acquisition and Analysis
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Multiple Analysis Vehicles
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Archive a Sample
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Rover Command Transmission
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Command Reception and Retransmission
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Design Example Characteristics
Dimensions Vehicle 52 Long, 34 Wide, 37
High Carrier Bay 31 Long, 24 Wide, 18
High Weight Carrier Vehicle 152
Pounds Available Payload 48 Pounds Typical Small
Rover 5-10 Pounds Power 66 Watts Solar
Panels 56 Amp-Hr Lead Acid Battery Reserve
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Georgia Tech
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• Levels of Earth-bound
• Teleoperation Users
• Vehicle Drivers (10 channels)
• Active Viewers (500 channels)
• Passive Viewers (unlimited)

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Conclusions
Hierarchical Roving represents a paradigm
shift in the decision between a large and small
rover. Best of both choices incorporated into
one platform. Provides the ability to
sense/sample the environment from several mobile
points simultaneously. Multiple levels of
Hierarchy are possible.
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Acknowledgements
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