Dynamically Reconfigurable Software and Mobility Architecture for Autonomous Planetary Rovers

ProtoInnovations, LLC proposes to research, design, develop, and validate a dynamically reconfigurable software and mobility architecture for autonomous planetary rovers, which will perform missions on a variety of different types of terrain on the Moon and will require soft soil tolerant and all-terrain mobility architectures and precision control. The dynamically reconfigurable software architecture will incorporate perception, planning interfaces, and multi-layer controls for robust, efficient, locomotion to meet the current and future needs of lunar rovers. Conventional mission-tested rover designs use static configurations of wheeled locomotion, which are optimized for maneuverability and terrainability but leave the rover susceptible to entrapment, or terrainability and trafficability, which makes the rover bulky or hard to operate for precise science. Our proposed design will incorporate reconfigurable software locomotion controls and mobility architectures. These controls and architectures will extend the conventional design space of planetary rovers and allow researchers to conduct autonomous science and exploration missions in areas that rovers havenrsquo;t yet been able to explore safely. This project will result in a series of important technologies including: rover mobility architectures with efficient, robust mobility on lunar terrain; a dynamically reconfigurable software architecture that enables multiple modes of locomotion; multiple sets of locomotion controls; sensing and perception systems to inform modes of locomotion; and rover design analyses for reconfigurable rover mobility architectures.