NASA Ames Research Center

Maria BualatIntelligent Robotics GroupMaria.Bualat@nasa.gov

Robotic Site Survey for ISRU

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Outline

Site Survey Overview

GPR Survey

Hydrogen Prospecting

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Human-Robot Site Survey Project

Systematic survey• Civil engineering survey, geophysical study,

resource prospecting, etc.• Systematic, detailed coverage

(necessary to ground-truth remote sensing)• Unproductive for crew to perform manually

(repetitive, tedious, time-consuming)

Source: T. Fong, M. Deans, et al., 2007. “Simulated Lunar RoboticSurvey at Terrestrial Analog Sites” (Proc. LPSC)

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Outline

Site Survey Overview

GPR Survey

Hydrogen Prospecting

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Haughton Crater Field Test

10 July – 3 August 2007• Two ARC K10 planetary rovers with survey instruments

3D scanning lidar for topographic mapping Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) for resource prospecting

• Test robotic survey systems and operational procedures• Multiple lunar analog sites at Haughton Crater (Canada)

Haughton Crater(Devon Island, Canada)

K10 rover

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Haughton Crater: A Lunar Analog

.

Shackleton Crater at the South Pole of the Moon is 19 km in diameter and might presentH2O ice in surrounding shadowed zones. It is a prime candidate site for human exploration.Haughton Crater, also ~ 20 km in size, is by far the best preserved impact structure of itsclass on Earth and is located in a H2O ground ice–rich rocky desert. Haughton may be thebest overall scientific and operational analog for lunar craters such as Shackleton.

Shackleton Crater, 19km dia.(lunar South Pole)

2005 Arecibo radar image

Haughton Crater, 20km dia.(Devon Island, Canada)

radar image

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Survey EquipmentK10 rover (3rd generation)

• 4-wheel drive, 4-wheel steer• Split rocker chassis• Size: 1.3 x 0.9 x 1.0 m (HxWxL) with sensor mast• Speed: 0.9 m/s (on 10 deg slope)• Power: 1900 W (Li-ion batteries)• Weight: 100 kg (including 25 kg payload)• dGPS, stereo cameras, compass, 2D laser scanner

Optech ILRIS-3D (topographic mapping)• Scanning 3D lidar with 40 deg FOV• Range: 3 to 1,500 m• Range accuracy: 7 mm @ 100 m

JPL CRUX GPR (subsurface mapping)• Ground-penetrating radar• 800 MHz center frequency• 15 cm resolution to 5 m depth

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GPR Survey Displays

transectlines

1x1 metergrid

GPR data(vertical)

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“Drill Hill” Survey

700 m

Survey plan• K10 robot on-site for 3 days• HMMWV simulates pressurized rover (temporary habitat)• Resource prospecting: subsurface ground-penetrating radar scans

(parallel transects with 50 m spacing)

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Drill Hill Survey (23-27 July 2007)

Survey plan(green, parallel

transectswith 50 mspacing)

K10 path(black)

Survey boundary(blue)

K10 robot path(real-time displayon Google Earth)

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Discovery Video - K10s at Haughton

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Lessons Learned

Operations• Dense coverage requires long distance driving• Continuous navigation is a key enabler for long-duration, long-

distance driving• Instrument constraints have a huge impact on systems

operations

Visualization tools• Essential for rapid contingency handling & high duty-cycle• Provide awareness of robot status & perception• Unified science & robot data facilitates situational awareness

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Outline

Site Survey Overview

GPR Survey

Hydrogen Prospecting

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HYDRA Field Test

19 - 20 September 2007

K10 rover with integrated HYDRA tested at ARC

Demonstrate utility of HYDRA NS in a robotic prospectingtask for near-surface hydrogenous deposits.

Objectives:• Acquire HYDRA data as rover navigates grid of GPS way-points

chosen without prior knowledge of the target locations• Detect and localize near-surface enhanced hydrogen deposits

within the rover test area• Validate site-survey architecture and visualization tools in a test

with scientists in the loop

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ARC Test Site

252Cf neutron source

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Visualization Tool

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Phase I: Site Characterization Traverse

N ⇒

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Epithermal Neutrons

Phase I: Site Characterization Traverse

N ⇒

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Thermalized Neutrons

Phase I: Site Characterization Traverse

N ⇒

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Phase II: ‘Interesting’ Locations

Return to ‘hot’ or ‘cold’ spots

Focus on characterizing extentof deposit

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All Traverses Added Together

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Epithermal Neutron Map

All Traverses Added Together

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Thermal Neutron Map

All Traverses Added Together

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Thermal Neutron Map

All Traverses Added Together

Polyethylene “ice”Polyethylene “ice”

Beach SandGypsum

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GoogleEarth View of Site

• Old satellite imagery• Low thermal neutron return associated with darker toned materials• Geochemical analysis of samples: darker has higher Fe2O3.• All materials have ~10 wt% water-equivalent hydrogen.

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HYDRA Test Summary

Test site soils more like Mars than Moon!• High Fe2O3: 5 - 8 wt%, absorbs thermals• H2O: ~10 wt%, clays plus moisture

Detected, located shallow “ice” proxies• But test site soil H2O obscured deeper deposits

Better lunar analog test site needed• Dry material, no hydrous minerals, lower FeO

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Conclusion

Key Points• Systematic survey is one task that should be performed by robots

Robotic surveying is realistic & achievable (TRL 5) Unproductive for crew to have to perform manually

• Intermittent control is sufficient for IVA & ground operations• Mission performance can be increased by off-loading utility tasks

(routine, tedious, repetitive) to robots

Intelligent Robotics GroupIntelligent Systems Division

NASA Ames Research Center

irg.arc.nasa.gov

Copyright © 2009