Dr. Jennifer Rochlis

Overview

• Build a technology testbed for future rover concepts

• Develop and demonstrate operations and mission concepts

Overview• Transport 2 crew members

• Traverse 10 degree slopes (30 degree Mars equivalent) and 1 ft tall rocks

• Provide up to a 6 mile drive capability

Driving

• On-board driving by 1 or 2 suited crewmembers

• Off-board driving (Teleoperation ) using panoramic camera and joystick

• Multiple listener stations like Mission Control

Autonomous System

• Stereo tracking, object following, waypoint navigation and obstacle avoidance

• Automated sequencing of frequent/repetitious actions

• Control via hand signals & Voice recognition

Audience Poll• The surface speed record on the Moon is 10.56

miles per hour set by the Lunar Rover

• What is the top travel speed for SCOUT?

Audience Poll• The Lunar Rover averaged 8mph• SCOUT travels at a top speed of:

A: 10 mph (on pavement)

B: 13 mph

C: 8 mph(on grass)

D: 17 mph

Subsystems

Wireless Router Access Point

Structure

Battery System

Liquid Air Recharge Dewar

DCS

EVA Lights

GPS Antenna

EVA Camera

Drive Motor

Steering System

Embedded GPS/INS

Laser

Drive/Suspension/Steering• Four wheel drive - motors, gearboxes & fail-

safe brakes in each

• Front, rear or all-wheel steer

• Four wheel independent adjustable suspension

Crew Accommodations• Crew Interfaces on

vehicle (seats/hand controller, etc.)

• Ingress aids (hand holds/grab bar/step bar)

• Mark III and I-Suitwith suit recharge

• Increase ergonomic adjustability

Audience Poll

What do scientists & engineers at NASA believe to be the #1 environmental challenge for long duration missions to the Moon and Mars?

• Scientists & engineers at NASA believe that #1 environmental challenge for long duration Moon/Mars missions will be:

Audience Poll

A: Temperature

B: Dust

C: Radiation

Navigation System

Lander planetary locationsurveyed by DSN. (Use GPS solution as known location for field test.)

Initial rover deploy location wrt lander well known

Range and range-rate data provided by comm system relative to lander.

10 km operational range

Navigated path stored on lander and rover for retracing

IMU’s onboard rover propagate path between comm measurement updates

Navigation System

Display and Control System

• Enables on-board andteleoperated drivingand monitoring

• Provides vehicle andenvironmentalstatus information &commanding

Display and Control System (cont.) • LabView software running on rugged

touchscreen & hand-held computers

• Designed to be operated by suited crewmember

Raw Image

360deg

180deg

Autonomy & Onboard Software • Point to point navigation (track to a fixed point)

• Human following (continuous tracking to a moving point)

• Obstacle avoidance

• Pose gathering, recording, monitoring (waypoints, astronaut, vehicle ground track)

• Data management, recording

Stereo Tracking & Following

• Enables SCOUT to track a person (by pointing cameras at them), follow the target around (by driving towards them) & receive commands based on gestures

Stereo Tracking & Following (cont.)

• Use combination of gestures, recognized by stereo vision, & speech so a person off-board can command SCOUT

• Track the closest human for safety

• Upgrade to higher resolution cameras to increase range over which smaller objects (arms) can be tracked

Audience Poll

• SCOUT’s empty weight is 1800lbs. What was the approximate empty weight of the Lunar Rover?

• LRV's gross operational weight was 1535 pounds with crew, equipment, and payload. But its empty weight was...

Audience Poll

A: 1000 lbs

B: 1500 lbs

C: 500 lbs

D: 2000 lbs

Data Communications• Vehicle on-board COTS LAN connects all vehicle

computers to Ethernet backbone• 5.8GHz Wireless Video Link to base station (4 mi.

range/ 10 Channels)• Can set up portable relay points• Wireless encryption

Ethernet backboneWirelessEthernet

Transceiver

EGLaptop

EVLaptop

ERLaptop

DCS

EPLaptop

PowerplantController

To and FromBase Station

VideoCamera

WirelessVideo

Transmitter

To Base Station

Operations–Planned operations

testing with the following partners:

–Advanced Cockpit Evaluation System (ACES)

–Mars Drill

–CB crew office (Seismic Sensors)

–End of Year Field Test - Meteor Crater