Mission planning for the Sun-Synchronous Navigation Field Experiment

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Abstract
This paper describes TEMPEST, a planner that enables a solar-powered rover to reason about path selection and event placement in terms of available solar energy and anticipated power draw. Unlike previous path planners, TEMPEST solves the coupled path, path timing and resource management problem. It combines information about mission objectives, operational constraints, the planetary environment and rover performance, and employs the Incremental Search Engine (ISE), a new search algorithm that produces optimal paths through high-dimensional spaces. In July 2001, TEMPEST sup- ported the Sun-Synchronous Navigation Field Experiment on Devon Island in the Canadian Arctic. The planner suc- cessfully selected time-sequenced, closed-circuit paths that enabled a solar-powered planetary rover prototype to traverse a multi-kilometer path over 24 hours with battery energy reserve. The field trial results motivate future work in mission re-planning, multiple resource constraint anal- ysis and improved speed and memory performance. Our objective is to fulfill a need for resource-cognizant auton- omy that is critical for future long-distance planetary sur- face missions. 1I ntroduction Future Mars rover exploration missions grow increasingly ambitious in terms of science data diversity and coverage, requiring greater rover mobility and autonomy (5). As reach is extended further beyond the landing site, a new host of issues become pertinent to the path planning prob- lem. Regional terrain may inhibit travel to distant science targets. Sunlight availability changes with the presence or absence of occluding hills or mountains, prompting care- ful planning of the timing of solar battery charging, driv- ing, communications and science. Even the power output of candidate rover nuclear generators may not sustain con- tinuous driving over long distances, forcing well-timed, periodic battery charging during inactive time periods. In either case, extending rover resource-cognizant autonomy might significantly improve the science data return for planetary surface missions. The Sun-Synchronous Navigation Project sought to inves- tigate several technologies to enable long-duration, solar- powered exploration of the poles of planets and moons of the inner solar system (13). TEMPEST (TEmporal Mis- sion Planner for the Exploration of Shadowed Terrain) was a key development of this project: a step towards greater levels of autonomy through resource-cognizant path plan- ning. The software produces plans whose path and timing are synchronous with planetary rotation, and hence with the sun. Though applied to the sun-synchronous naviga- tion strategy, the mission planning framework is applica- ble to general resource management on planetary exploration robots.

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