THE PROVISCOUT FIELD TRIALS TENERIFE 2012 INTEGRATED TESTING OF AEROBOT MAPPING, ROVER NAVIGATION AND SCIENCE ASSESSMENT Gerhard Paar, Laurence Tyler, Dave Barnes, Mark Woods, Andy Shaw, Konstantinos Kapellos, Tomas Pajdla, Alberto Medina, Derek Pullan, Andrew Griffiths, Jan-Peter Muller, Derek Long and the PRoViScout Team
2 FP7-SPACE 2010-04 to 2012-09 Rover Navigation & Science Scout Rover Full Implementation of Rover Control & Autonomy 12 European Partners PRoViScout
Planetary Robotics Vision Scouting Chain!!
Planetary Robotics Vision Scouting Chain!! Planetary Robotics Vision Monitoring
5 Field Trials Objectives: Autonomous Science in Practice Verify technical & strategic concept Test all components in representative field environment Integrate, test & verify component integration with demonstrator platform Provide www interface for remote activities monitoring and visualisation Point out future problems / development needs Validate the proposed operational planning approach for autonomous science. Detect the presence of physical layering (for determination of the sedimentary environment and stratigraphy) Detect the presence of anomalously coloured areas in an outcrop (for determination of compositional variation).
6 First integration of Rover Field Trials Rehearsal: Aberystwyth June 2012 Vision system (AUPE, 3D mapping, Panorama, VO) Science assessment Path planning Navigation
Field Trials: Permit Acquisition
Duration: 08.09 19.09.2012 Key Data Tenerife Field Trials Location: Minas de San José, Tenerife, Spain
~25 Participants First Name Last Name Affiliation Country Role Gerhard Paar JR AT PRoViScout Project Manager / Vision Bernhard Nauschnegg JR AT vision processing SW Kathrin Sander JR AT Support / documentation Andy Shaw SciSys UK Science assessment SW Mark Woods SciSys UK SciSys team leader / SW integration Matt Jordan SciSys UK Overseer Ernst Hauber DLR GER Science / Geology Laetitia Le Deit DLR GER Science / Geology Frank Trauthan DLR GER Science Dave Barnes AU UK AU team leader / Idris Stephen Pugh AU UK Network and infrastructure / AUPE Laurence Tyler AU UK Project science and AUPE / Aerobot Fred Labrosse AU UK Idris supervisor / aerobot / HW Mark Neal AU UK HW / mechanical support Tomas Pajdla CTU CZ Ext. DEM / Ortho / www Michal Jancosek CTU CZ Ext. DEM / Ortho / www Jan Heller CTU CZ Ext. DEM / Ortho / www Alberto Medina GMV ES GNC / navigation Derek Pullan ULeic UK Science / Geology George Manolaros TraSys BE PRoViM / visualization Andrew Griffiths UCL UK Hypercam / WALI Jan-Peter Muller UCL UK UCL team leader / WALI supervisor Derek Long KCL UK Decision System (MMOPS) Conny Spelbrink ActiveConnect S.L. Spain Local Agent Stefano d'orilia REA BE REA Officer Elias Chatzitheodoridis NTUA GR Reviewer
Planning / Preparation In 2011 (during PRoVisG Field Trials on Tenerife) trajectory was chosen Several field trials in Aberystwyth In Summer 2012 detailed planning: Contact with local support (ActiveConnect) Permits of National Authorities Booking of accomodation (The Parador, few kms from test site) Equipment Broadband Satellite Application incl. power supply Transportation (most of all Idris) Health and safety instructions for participants Test schedules
Daily Schedules from Thu 13th
Test Site: Minas de San José ~25m carpark trajectory trail gazebo WiFi
System Overview & Components
Site Selection, Infrastructure & Logistics see following presentation by Steve Pugh
Technical / Scientific Tasks Generate georeferenced overall DEM (handheld & aerobot aerial images) Choose (place) relevant scientifical targets/define scientific WPs Set up HW and NW (Rover, cams, aerobot, WiFi) Test / adopt single SW components (vision, navigation, planning, science assessment, visualization) Integrate all SW components (vision, navigation, planning, science assessment) to the executive & setup on Idris processing unit Set initial DEM & WPs (Overseer ) Idris acts autonomously Results are transferred, stored & visualized
Tethered Aerobot Campaign
Aerobot Images
dgps measured points
Aerobot Ortho Image & DEM
Rover DEM / Ortho Image / Hazard Map Camera FoV too large Too small rocks detected as obstacles Rover position not updated
Science Assessment on 2012-09-17
Press / Dissemination Handouts / mini-posters: English / Spanish / German Placed in hotel / on cars Handed out to tourists & press http:///index.php/events/tenerife-2012 Log Book (also online) Articles in newspapers: Standard (AT) Kleine Zeitung (AT)
PRoViScout Live Video Feed Activity in the mission control center (path planning, simulation and monitoring) and in the field (web cam) is transmitted over a satellite link to a server at the CTU And transformed into a live video feed at http://cmp.felk.cvut.cz/projects/proviscout/vfeed/
PRoViScout Live Video Feed, Sun 16 th / Mon 17 th Sept The Live Video Feed Web Page presents the activity of mission overseer, e.g. DEM generation, trajectory planning, scientific target detection, rover 3D visualization and live web cam view.
Last Day: Full Chain Navigation /Science Assessment / Decision / Monitoring
26 Shortcomings / room for improvement Global waypoint concept missing Provide Broadband Satellite Internet during whole trial period with sufficient upload rate (i.e. for online data processing chains or administrative work on-site) Run more small tests for HW / SW integration before OR extend duration of final field trial Take even more care for HW / rover team to not always being the first AND the last on site Hourly schedule possible not before 3 rd day of trials Talk about coordinate systems early enough!!!
What was very good Every day schedules and communication in general / Climate Local support (MUST have!) Logistics / transfer (amount of cars etc.) Distance hotel (Parador) Parking area test site HW (from beginning) and SW (jointly close to the end) set-up Location of test site (not seen from road not too many tourists)
Removing Rover Tracks Low tech Spin-off Technology
Further Reading / Watching PRoViScout Youtube PRoViScout Logbook http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mt1gy-564v0
Thank you for your attention The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under Grant Agreement n 241523 PRoViScout.