JPL has developed the worlds first rock climbing robot. This video presents climbing trials at vertical, overhanging, and inverted angles, and a zero-g drill for astronauts.

We demonstrate the operation of the SODAS approach (self-organized ontogenetic development of autonomous systems) for on-line processing of sensory inputs and onboard dynamic behavior tasking using SRR2K (sample return rover) platform at the planetary robotics indoor facility of JPL. SODAS employs a biologically inspired dynamic neural network architecture operating on the principle of chaotic neural dynamics manifesting intentionality in the style of brains. Intentional behavior includes the cyclic operation of prediction, testing by action, sensing, perceiving, and assimilating the learned features. The experiments illustrate robust obstacle avoidance combined with goal-oriented navigation by the SRR2K robot.

Lemur IIa, the second-generation Limbed Excursion Mechanical Utility Robot, is a six-limbed walking robot developed at NASA' s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Lemur is distinct in part because each limb was designed be used for both walking and manipulation. It is intended to be a prototype of a dexterous, operationally flexible robot for on-orbit assembly, inspection, and maintenance. This video illustrates some of the current capabilities of this platform. Demonstrations included are omnidirectional walking without rotating the robot, body pose control from a fixed stance, visually guided docking with a recharging station, and manipulation and inspection with multiple tools (on multiple limbs). These capabilities represent a sample of the current tasks Lemur is performing. Please see www-robotics.jpl.nasa.gov for more information and demonstrations about Lemur.

Lemur IIa, the second-generation Limbed Excursion Mechanical Utility Robot, is a six-limbed walking robot developed at NASA' s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Lemur is distinct in part because each limb was designed be used for both walking and manipulation. It is intended to be a prototype of a dexterous, operationally flexible robot for on-orbit assembly, inspection, and maintenance. This video illustrates Lemur completing an autonomous assembly task. Lemur, as part of a robotic team, is helping to assemble a structure. In this demonstration, Lemur autonomously walks through a truss, locates a task board, and tightens a bolt on that board. These demonstrations represent a sample of the current tasks Lemur is performing. Please see www-robotics.jpl.nasa.gov for more information and demonstrations about Lemur.

Current and future NASA robotic missions to planetary surfaces are tending toward longer duration and are becoming more ambitious for rough terrain access. For a higher level of autonomy in such missions, the rovers will require behavior that must also adapt to declining rover health and unknown environmental conditions. The MER (Mars Exploration Rovers) called Spirit and Opportunity have both passed 350 days of life on the Martian surface, with possible extensions to 450 days and beyond depending on rover health. Changes in navigational planning due to degradation of the drive motors as they reach their lifetime are currently done on Earth for the Spirit rover. The upcoming 2009 MSL (Mars Science Laboratory) and 2013 AFL (Astrobiology Field Laboratory) missions are planned to last 300-500 days, and will possibly involve traverses on the order of multiple kilometers over challenging terrain. This paper presents an adaptive control algorithm for onboard learning of weights within a free flow hierarchy (FFH) behavior framework for autonomous control of planetary surface rovers that explicitly addresses the issues of rover health and rough terrain access. We also present the results of some laboratory and field studies.

The Cliff-bot system consists of three individual planetary rovers that work as a team to explore the surface of a cliff. Two of the rovers, designated “Anchor-bots”, assist the motion of a third rappelling “Cliff-bot” down and along a cliff face using tethers. A decentralized control technique is used to control the motion of the three rovers. The objective of this study is to develop several control algorithms that will create a robust and reliable Cliff-bot system. Control is accomplished by combining and prioritizing several different control algorithms into a hybrid deliberative-reactive control structure. Many different algorithms have been successfully developed and tested to provide the Cliff-bot system with stable and robust navigation of terrain slopes of at least 70 degrees.

The underlying motive of "follow the water" in the search for evidence of past or present life on Mars has led NASA to deploy increasingly sophisticated robotic missions to the planetary surface. Opportunity and Spirit, the current pair of MER (Mars Exploration Rovers) on Mars for over a year, have both discovered evidence of past surface water. Optimal use of mission resources, such as ground planning time and surface operation duration, for increased science data return becomes critical with each advancement in the capabilities of the onboard instrument suites. This paper presents a novel, end-to-end, fully integrated system being developed at JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) that is called SCAIP (Single Command Approach and Instrument Placement). SCAIP enables a rover to autonomously travel to a designated science target from an extended distance away, and precisely place an instrument on that target with a single command without additional human interaction. The results of some experimental studies with a rover in terrestrial settings and using imagery returned from MER are also described.

The robot construction crew (RCC) is a heterogeneous multi-robot system for autonomous construction of a structure through assembly of long components. The two-robot team demonstrates component placement into an existing structure in a realistic environment. The task requires component acquisition, cooperative transport, and cooperative precision manipulation. A behavior-based architecture provides adaptability. The RCC approach minimizes computation, power, communication, and sensing for applicability to space-related construction efforts, but the techniques are applicable to terrestrial construction tasks.

Exploration of high risk terrain areas such as cliff faces and site construction operations by autonomous robotic systems on Mars requires a control architecture that is able to autonomously adapt to uncertainties in knowledge of the environment. We report on the development of a software/hardware framework for cooperating multiple robots performing such tightly coordinated tasks. This work builds on our earlier research into autonomous planetary rovers and robot arms. Here, we seek to closely coordinate the mobility and manipulation of multiple robots to perform examples of a cliff traverse for science data acquisition, and site construction operations including grasping, hoisting, and transport of extended objects such as large array sensors over natural, unpredictable terrain. In support of this work we have developed an enabling distributed control architecture called control architecture for multirobot planetary outposts (CAMPOUT) wherein integrated multirobot mobility and control mechanisms are derived as group compositions and coordination of more basic behaviors under a task-level multiagent planner. CAMPOUT includes the necessary group behaviors and communication mechanisms for coordinated/cooperative control of heterogeneous robotic platforms. In this paper, we describe CAMPOUT, and its application to ongoing physical experiments with multirobot systems at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA, for exploration of cliff faces and deployment of extended payloads.

This paper describes recent work undertaken at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA in the area of increased rover autonomy for planetary surface operations. The primary vehicle for this work is the Field Integrated, Design and Operations (FIDO) rover. The FIDO rover is an advanced technology prototype that is a terrestrial analog of the Mars Exploration Rovers (MER) being sent to Mars in 2003. We address the autonomy issue through improved integration of rover based sensing and higher level onboard planning capabilities. The sensors. include an inertial navigation unit (INU) with 3D gyros and accelerometers, a sun sensor, mast and body mounted imagery, and wheel encoders. Multisensor fusion using an Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) approach coupled with pattern recognition and tracking algorithms has enabled the autonomy that is necessary for maximizing science data return while minimizing the number of ground loop interactions. These algorithms are coupled with a long range navigation algorithm called ROAMAN (Road Map Navigation) for an integrated approach to rover autonomy. We also report the results of algorithm validation studies in remote field trials at Black Rock Summit in Central Nevada, California's Mojave Desert, and the Arroyo Seco at JPL.

We have developed a cliff robot that is capable of descending a cliff and autonomously navigating to way-points on the cliff wall. This aggressive mobility system consists of an ensemble of three tethered robots, which cooperate under tight coordinated control and collective state estimation. The distributed task is described as a behavior network, which consists of a network of controllers spread across the robots and which interact through communication links to achieve a collective control objective. Fielded experimental results show that the cliff robot is capable of navigating to designated way-points on a cliff wall using the proposed control scheme.

The objective of the Robot Work Crew (RWC) project is to investigate key challenges in multi-robot coordination when performing tightly coupled coordination tasks such as transporting and handling of long objects on challenging planetary terrain. In this paper, we focus on tightly coupled coordination of two Mars rovers transporting a long payload. We have developed practical decentralized compliancy control and coordinated comply control algorithms that effectively address compliant control for compliantly coupled multiple mobile robots. Experiments at the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, CA of two Mars rovers carry an extended payload over uneven, natural terrain are used to validate and illustrate the approach.