ExoMars navigation software gets put through its paces

Trials were carried out on a half-scale model of ExoMars known as ExoTeR (ExoMars Testing Rover). During two days of testing, the vehicle used its ‘AutoNav’ software to successfully navigate around ESTEC’s  9 x 9 m ‘Planetary Utilisation Testbed’, commonly referred to as the ‘Mars Yard’ by ESA’s robotic engineers.

Mast-mounted stereo cameras allow the rover to digitally map the elevation of its surroundings, with the navigation software calculating the safest and most efficient route to a target point. Communications delays of between four and 24 minutes mean target points can be sent from Earth, but the rover will navigate the route to those points autonomously.

“Rather than sending complete hazard-free trajectories for the rover to follow, autonomous navigation allows us to send it only a target point,” said ESA robotics engineer Luc Joudrier.

“The rover creates a digital map of its vicinity and calculates how best to reach that target point. Looking at the map it tries to place the rover in all these adjacent locations to work out if the rover would be safe in every one of these positions – or if the rocks are too high or terrain too steep.”