Michael Wagner, Stuart Heys, Dimi Apostolopoulos, Chris Williams Rover Mobility Michael Wagner, Stuart Heys, Dimi Apostolopoulos, Chris Williams

Traverse Speed In 2004, science operations saw Zoë driving at 1.8 km/hr Further testing in Pittsburgh showed Zoë can achieve 3.2 km/hr Science maneuvers or obstacle avoidance slows down the average speed to a new locale Maximum Speed [km/hr] Turning Radius [m] Zoë Speed Limits Navigator Arc Set Close Maneuvers

Mobility Problems: Slopes Maximum slope on fine sand is much lower than on rocky slopes Once it slips, it starts digging its wheels into the soil Humans better than autonomy system at handling slops Humans back up or pick a path that is not too steep Autonomy software much more likely to begin slipping

Tough Terrain Steep slopes Channels Sandy?

Tough Side Slope Wheels slip Axles rotate

Mobility Problems: Obstacles Too many obstacles: rover cannot find a safe path Zoë will back up and try again This recovery maneuver does not always work! Obstacles sticking out of the ground are manageable Holes and ditches are much more difficult to see

Mobility Problems: Faults Zoë gets stuck driving along one side of a fault, railroad or drainage Go up and down drainages Faults are not always wide enough to see in DEM but often deep Man-made stuff is really bad

Trenches, Roads

Humanity Ditches Pits Roads

More Tough Terrain

No Problem

Mitigating Risk Can you find dangerous terrain from orbit? Some obstacles can’t be seen even on high resolution data Should use SPI panoramas for guidance The paths will be significantly safer with a rover expert helping to create the plan

How to Handle Failures? How do we handle navigation failures autonomously? Must have some kind of run-out plan Be able to recover next sol with human oversight FI mosaics may also fail due to driving problems: tough to build mosaic on rough surface Basically, forget any chance of returning to an FI location

Targeted Moves Unreachable Unreachable Unreachable