The Mars Exploration Rover instrument positioning system

Author

Baumgartner, Eric T. ; Bonitz, Robert G. ; Melko, Joseph P. ; Shiraishi, Lori R. ; Leger, P. Chris

Author_Institution

Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Technol., Pasadena, CA, USA

fYear

2005

fDate

5-12 March 2005

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

19

Abstract

During Mars Exploration Rover (MER) surface operations, the scientific data gathered by the in situ instrument suite has been invaluable with respect to the discovery of a significant water history at Meridiani Planum and the hint of water processes at work in Gusev Crater. Specifically, the ability to perform precision manipulation from a mobile platform (i.e., mobile manipulation) has been a critical part of the successful operation of the Spirit and Opportunity rovers. As such, this paper describes the MER instrument positioning system that allows the in situ instruments to operate and collect their important science data using a robust, dexterous robotic arm combined with visual target selection and autonomous software functions.

Keywords

Mars; aerospace instrumentation; aerospace robotics; astronomical instruments; dexterous manipulators; mobile robots; planetary rovers; Gusev Crater; Mars Exploration Rover; Meridiani Planum; Opportunity; Spirit; autonomous software; instrument positioning system; robotic arm; visual target selection; Calibration; Cameras; Instruments; Mars; Propulsion; Robot vision systems; Robustness; Soil; Spectroscopy; Surface morphology;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Aerospace Conference, 2005 IEEE

Conference_Location

Big Sky, MT

Print_ISBN

0-7803-8870-4

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/AERO.2005.1559295

Filename

1559295