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ESDMD #0805: Autonomous Surface Mobility and Navigation

Autonomous and semi-autonomous driving for surface assets, to move faster over unmapped terrain, over "an order of magnitude greater range", and despite communication delays (bin 2, rating 8 of 57). The lunar target for the Foundational Exploration segment is 1050 km a year of uncrewed driving at the South Pole. Today's reference is Perseverance, at about 250 m per sol (Tech gaps spreadsheet, ESDMD #0805).

Quotations below are from row ESDMD #0805 of the tech gaps spreadsheet unless marked otherwise. ADD Rev C's Appendix D prints the same table for this gap, and it matches the row field for field (ADD Rev C, p. 240).

Description

"Mobility assets' autonomous and semi-autonomous surface mobility and navigation capabilities are valuable to enable a sustained lunar presence and Mars missions. Challenging environmental characteristics (e.g., harsh lighting effects, feature-sparse terrain) require advanced perception sensing and new algorithms and control paradigms for autonomous mobility. Current human-in-the-loop teleoperation for navigation and pathfinding may be insufficient for the level of support that robotic assets will be expected to provide for exploration missions. Advances in human-in-the-loop operation, supervised autonomy, onboard autonomy, and autonomous and semi-autonomous operations are desired to achieve a faster cadence of continued operation over previously unmapped terrain, over an order of magnitude greater range, and in the presence of communication delays and data latency."

Impacts and benefits: "Without gap closure, robotic assets will rely on heritage teleoperation from Earth that has challenges navigating difficult and/or unmapped terrain in a timely manner."

Current state of the art

"Human-in-the-loop ground control solutions navigating at slow pace over communications delays and data latency. The VIPER project developed sensors for determining position and identifying hazards for future use on an exploration rover at the lunar South Pole region. Terrestrial autonomous navigation systems rely on high performance computing. Mars 2020 Rover Perseverance uses human-in-the-loop goal setting augmented by onboard autonomous navigation with hazard avoidance which enables typical traverse distances of ~250m/sol or ~700m per multi-sol command cycle."

Performance target

  • Moon/Mars: "Capability for autonomous surface mobility and navigation to enable accurate location estimation and repositioning of surface assets while uncrewed."
  • Moon: "In addition, the uncrewed surface mobility range target for FE segment is 1050 km/year at the lunar South Pole region."
  • Mars: "In addition, increased autonomy and reliability compared to the lunar performance target."

Child gaps

  • 0804-01*: Perception and navigation sensors for extended operation in the lunar environment and dynamic lunar lighting conditions
  • 0805-01*: Software for robust perception in dynamic, suboptimal lunar lighting conditions
  • 0805-02: High-performance processors for deep space missions
  • 0805-03: Software for onboard localization, hazard detection, and path planning for surface mobility systems

Both starred child gaps also appear under #0804. The asterisk marks "a child gap with multiple parents" (ADD Rev C, p. 199). The title of 0805-02 is repeated under other IDs: 0202-01, 1002-02 and 1004-01 (see the source page). The ADD prints 0805-02 unstarred too (p. 240, PDF checked), as it does the other three (pp. 209, 248, 250). So by D.1's definition each is a child gap with one parent (open question 14).

Traceability

  • Use cases and functions: UC-A-201 L -- FN-A-201 L; UC-C-202 M -- FN-C-201 M; UC-A-101 M -- All FN; UC-A-403 M -- FN-A-401 M
  • Definition tasks: Mars: Crew Surface Mobility Strategy; Surface PNT Strategy; Priorities for Crew vs. Robotic Tasks Strategy
  • Cross-reference: FN-A-201 L, "Control robotic system(s) in sunlit areas and non-PSRs on the lunar surface from Earth", is also one of the Users Guide's Phase 1 functional gaps (Users Guide, p. 8; see Phase 1 functional gaps). This link joins the two sources; neither makes it.

Segments and sub-architectures

Priority

Priority bin 2, overall prioritization rating 8 of 57. The rating is "the gap's location in the prioritized list of gaps", so 1 is the highest priority, and bins group gaps of similar priority, bin 1 highest. Criticality, urgency, breadth and depth set the order; cost is not considered (ADD Rev C, pp. 78, 199; method on the gaps index).

Moon Base relevance

Not established by the sources so far. The Users Guide does not name #0805 among its near-term Moon Base challenges (Technology and knowledge challenges). The function cross-reference under Traceability is a link between sources, not a mapping either source makes.

Sources

Tech gaps spreadsheet, ESDMD #0805 · ADD Rev C, pp. 78, 199, 209, 240, 248, 250 · Users Guide, p. 8 · Lunar Mobility Drivers and Needs, PDF p. 4