Robotic Planetary Exploration by Sun-Synchronous Navigation - Robotics Institute Carnegie Mellon University

Robotic Planetary Exploration by Sun-Synchronous Navigation

Conference Paper, Proceedings of 6th International Symposium on Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Automation in Space (iSAIRAS '01), June, 2001

Abstract

Sun-synchronous navigation is accomplished by traveling opposite to planetary rotation, navigating with the sun, to remain continually in sunlight. At appropriate latitude and speed, solar-powered rovers can maintain continual exposure to solar radiation sufficient for sustained operation. We are prototyping a robot, named Hyperion, (Figure 1) for solar-powered operation in polar environments and developing sun-cognizant navigation methods to enable rovers to dodge shadows, seek sun, and drive sun-synchronous routes. We plan to conduct field experiments in a planetary-analog setting in the Canadian arctic to verify the algorithms that combine reasoning about sunlight and power with autonomous navigation and to validate parameters that will allow sun-synchronous explorers to be scaled for other planetary bodies. The paper provides a preliminary report on progress towards sun-synchronous navigation.

BibTeX

@conference{Wettergreen-2001-8254,
author = {David Wettergreen and Benjamin Shamah and Paul Tompkins and William (Red) L. Whittaker},
title = {Robotic Planetary Exploration by Sun-Synchronous Navigation},
booktitle = {Proceedings of 6th International Symposium on Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Automation in Space (iSAIRAS '01)},
year = {2001},
month = {June},
address = {Montreal, Canada},
keywords = {planetary surface exploration, Hyperion solar-power mobile robot, sun-synchronous navigation},
}