Measuring robot performance in real-time for NASA robotic reconnaissance operations

Abstract

Technical advances since Apollo make it possible to perform robotic reconnaissance to gain a better understanding of lunar sites prior to human exploration. NASA is conducting analog field tests to investigate these operations concepts with advanced robots and simulated flight operations. We have developed robot performance monitoring software for use during robotic reconnaissance operations. We measure robot performance by monitoring robot data in real-time and computing robot performance metrics from that data. Metrics are computed for two regimes of flight operations -- remote supervision of autonomous robot operations and debrief support after a flight operations shift. In this paper we describe our performance monitoring software, define the metrics we compute, discuss how these metrics are used in flight operations, and summarize results from recent field tests.