Scientific exploration of challenging planetary analog environments with a team of legged robots
Year: 2023
Type: article
Abstract: The interest in exploring planetary bodies for scientific investigation and in situ resource utilization is ever-rising. Yet, many sites of interest are inaccessible to state-of-the-art planetary exploration robots because of the robots' inability to traverse steep slopes, unstructured terrain, and loose soil. In addition, current single-robot approaches only allow a limited exploration speed and a single set of skills. Here, we present a team of legged robots with complementary skills for exploration missions in challenging planetary analog environments. We equipped the robots with an efficient locomotion controller, a mapping pipeline for online and postmission visualization, instance segmentation to highlight scientific targets, and scientific instruments for remote and in situ investigation. Furthermore, we integrated a robotic arm on one of the robots to enable high-precision measurements. Legged robots can swiftly navigate representative terrains, such as granular slopes beyond 25°, loose soil, and unstructured terrain, highlighting their advantages compared with wheeled rover systems. We successfully verified the approach in analog deployments at the Beyond Gravity ExoMars rover test bed, in a quarry in Switzerland, and at the Space Resources Challenge in Luxembourg. Our results show that a team of legged robots with advanced locomotion, perception, and measurement skills, as well as task-level autonomy, can conduct successful, effective missions in a short time. Our approach enables the scientific exploration of planetary target sites that are currently out of human and robotic reach.
Source: Science Robotics
Institutions: ETH Zurich, Harbin Institute of Technology, State Key Laboratory of Robotics and Systems, University of Bern, Laboratory of Hydraulics, Hydrology and Glaciology, Center for Space and Habitability, University of Basel, University of Zurich, Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts
Language: English
Subfield: Biomedical Engineering
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4384025110