A KML interface for dynamics simulation of robotic planetary exploration

Efficient exploration of the Moon, Mars, and other celestial bodies will require careful coordination between assets in human-robot teams. Such complexity requires mission planning tools to accurately simulate resource consumption, communications, and maneuverability/traversability for multiple vehicles throughout proposed expeditions. This paper presents a Keyhole Markup Language (KML) interface for simulation of complex robotic vehicle missions with the Lunar Surface Operations Simulator (LSOS), a dynamics-based rover simulator based on the Rover Analysis, Modeling, and Simulation (ROAMS) software. This technique outlines simple Schemas that describe complex events in a KML file and replaces manual simulation script construction. Several experiments and simulation studies that utilized this method are presented.