Reconfigurable robots for all-terrain exploration

Paul S. Schenker; Paolo Pirjanian; J. Balaram; K. S. Ali; Ashitey Trebi-Ollennu; Terrance L. Huntsberger; Hrand Aghazarian; Brett A. Kennedy; Eric T. Baumgartner; Karl D. Iagnemma; Adam Rzepniewski; Steven Dubowsky; Patrick C. Leger; Dimitrios Apostolopoulos; Gerard T. McKee

doi:10.1117/12.403744

16 October 2000 Reconfigurable robots for all-terrain exploration

Paul S. Schenker, Paolo Pirjanian, J. Balaram, K. S. Ali, Ashitey Trebi-Ollennu, Terrance L. Huntsberger, Hrand Aghazarian, Brett A. Kennedy, Eric T. Baumgartner, Karl D. Iagnemma, Adam Rzepniewski, Steven Dubowsky, Patrick C. Leger, Dimitrios Apostolopoulos, Gerard T. McKee

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 4196, Sensor Fusion and Decentralized Control in Robotic Systems III; (2000) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.403744
Event: Intelligent Systems and Smart Manufacturing, 2000, Boston, MA, United States

Abstract

While significant recent progress has been made in development of mobile robots for planetary surface exploration, there remain major challenges. These include increased autonomy of operation, traverse of challenging terrain, and fault-tolerance under long, unattended periods of use. We have begun work which addresses some of these issues, with an initial focus on problems of high risk access, that is, autonomous roving over highly variable, rough terrain. This is a dual problem of sensing those conditions which require rover adaptation, and controlling the rover actions so as to implement this adaptation in a well understood way (relative to metrics of rover stability, traction, power utilization, etc.). Our work progresses along several related technical lines: 1) development a fused state estimator which robustly integrates internal rover state and externally sensed environmental information to provide accurate configuration information; 2) kinematic and dynamical stability analysis of such configurations so as to determine predicts for a needed change of control regime (e.g., traction control, active c.g. positioning, rover shoulder stance/pose); 3) definition and implementation of a behavior-based control architecture and action-selection strategy which autonomously sequences multi-level rover controls and reconfiguration. We report on these developments, both software simulations and hardware experimentation. Experiments include reconfigurable control of JPS's Sample Return Rover geometry and motion during its autonomous traverse over simulated Mars terrain.

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Paul S. Schenker, Paolo Pirjanian, J. Balaram, K. S. Ali, Ashitey Trebi-Ollennu, Terrance L. Huntsberger, Hrand Aghazarian, Brett A. Kennedy, Eric T. Baumgartner, Karl D. Iagnemma, Adam Rzepniewski, Steven Dubowsky, Patrick C. Leger, Dimitrios Apostolopoulos, and Gerard T. McKee "Reconfigurable robots for all-terrain exploration", Proc. SPIE 4196, Sensor Fusion and Decentralized Control in Robotic Systems III, (16 October 2000); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.403744

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