Experimental Results from a Terrain Adaptive Navigation System for Planetary Rovers

Abstract

Results from the experimental testing of a navigation system for planetary rovers called Terrain Adaptive Navigation (TANav) are shown here. This system was designed to enable greater access to and more robust operations in terrains with widely varying slippage. The system achieves this goal by using onboard stereo cameras to remotely classify terrain, predict the slippage of that terrain, and use this information in the planning of a path to the goal. An end-to-end onboard demonstration of the system in a Mars analog environment is shown with promising results. 1.