Artificial Intelligence for Future Rover Missions

by | Aug 16, 2004 | Autonomy and Robotics

NASA’s Spirit and Opportunity rovers have given us remarkable views of Mars, but the next generation of such vehicles will need greater onboard intelligence. And as we move ever farther away from the Earth, our systems will eventually need to become capable of a great degree of autonomy. Imagine an Alpha Centauri probe 4.3 light years away as it experiences a malfunction, or discovers a new target in Centauri space that needs investigation. There will be no way to wait 8.6 years for a round-trip signal to Earth, so autonomy and AI are crucial for robotic exploration. A recent story in SpaceDaily talks about NASA’s work at its Ames Research Center that focuses on improving what our rovers can currently do. An interesting quote from NASA’s Kanna Rajan: “Part of the problem is we are not closing the loop on board the rover. Signals from the rover have to go to Earth for a human with his/her cognitive capacity to deliberate on the information in the signal and make a decision. Based on that decision, a signal goes back to Mars to instruct the rover to take pictures or do other work.” NASA hopes to remedy this time-consuming situation with a new AI-based agent software architecture called Intelligent Deployable Execution Agents, or IDEA.

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In Centauri Dreams, Paul Gilster looks at peer-reviewed research on deep space exploration, with an eye toward interstellar possibilities. For many years this site coordinated its efforts with the Tau Zero Foundation. It now serves as an independent forum for deep space news and ideas. In the logo above, the leftmost star is Alpha Centauri, a triple system closer than any other star, and a primary target for early interstellar probes. To its right is Beta Centauri (not a part of the Alpha Centauri system), with Beta, Gamma, Delta and Epsilon Crucis, stars in the Southern Cross, visible at the far right (image courtesy of Marco Lorenzi).

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