4 ms·

You’re driving a ‘car’ on Mars! Does it actually include touch and go like driving with the driver as decision maker? I expected that every move would be scrut

You’re driving a ‘car’ on Mars! Does it actually include touch and go like driving with the driver as decision maker? I expected that every move would be scrutinized by a team of specialists?

foobarbecue 3y ago
In a nutshell, one rover planner (that's what drivers / arm operators are called) writes the sequence of commands, a second rover planner checks it and then walks through it line-by-line out loud with another ~2 rover planners watching. Then the second rover planner walks through the whole thing again with many other teams listening in and asking questions. The first rover planner also consults with a surface properties scientist during development of the drive command sequence. So, if things go wrong it's never really any single person's fault. But still, that first rover planner drafting the initial version of the command sequence bears a fair amount of responsibility.
- foobarbecue 3y ago
  Just wanted to add that if you're a US taxpayer, that's your car we're driving. We really do try to take good care of it :-)
  - komali2 3y ago
    Considering the relatively small size of the budget that might be the most carefully managed bit of taxpayer money in the entire country ;)
- ljoshua 3y ago
  Just wanted to say that this is the kind comment chain I come to HN for, when a Mars rover driver comes in with a relevant and amazing anecdote. Absolutely love this. Thank you foobarbecue!
  - foobarbecue 3y ago
    Aw, shucks. If you're interested in more info, there's a paper about how we work: https://doi.org/10.1109/AERO50100.2021.9438370 https://doi.org/10.1109/AERO50100.2021.9438370 , the mission blog is https://mars.nasa.gov/msl/mission-updates/ https://mars.nasa.gov/msl/mission-updates/ and this reddit channel is great: https://www.reddit.com/r/curiosityrover/ https://www.reddit.com/r/curiosityrover/ .
- senectus1 3y ago
  this is fascinating.. thanks for the insight!
- Fatnino 3y ago
  The rover has a bit of autonomy so it won't drive itself off an unseen cliff or whatever, right?
  - foobarbecue 3y ago
    The autonomous driving capabilities on Curiosity (known as "guarded" and "autonav" modes) are quite limited and haven't been used recently. They don't work in rough terrain, and we've been in rough terrain for a while now. This means that we can only drive to the end of the 3D meshes generated from images from the previous parking spot. When the terrain is acceptable for autonav we can usually rely on orbital imagery and drive farther. We do set limits on suspension angles and tilt of the rover. So we'll say "stop driving if you are tilted more than 20 degrees," "stop driving if your differential angle goes above 7 degrees," etc.
- hectormalot 3y ago
  Thanks for explaining this. Super interesting stuff. It’s the type of comment I love to read here.

You’re driving a ‘car’ on Mars! Does it actually include touch and go like driving with the driver as decision maker? I expected that every move would be scrutinized by a team of specialists?

foobarbecue 3y ago

In a nutshell, one rover planner (that's what drivers / arm operators are called) writes the sequence of commands, a second rover planner checks it and then walks through it line-by-line out loud with another ~2 rover planners watching. Then the second rover planner walks through the whole thing again with many other teams listening in and asking questions. The first rover planner also consults with a surface properties scientist during development of the drive command sequence. So, if things go wrong it's never really any single person's fault. But still, that first rover planner drafting the initial version of the command sequence bears a fair amount of responsibility.

foobarbecue 3y ago
Just wanted to add that if you're a US taxpayer, that's your car we're driving. We really do try to take good care of it :-)
- komali2 3y ago
  Considering the relatively small size of the budget that might be the most carefully managed bit of taxpayer money in the entire country ;)
ljoshua 3y ago
Just wanted to say that this is the kind comment chain I come to HN for, when a Mars rover driver comes in with a relevant and amazing anecdote. Absolutely love this. Thank you foobarbecue!
- foobarbecue 3y ago
  Aw, shucks. If you're interested in more info, there's a paper about how we work: https://doi.org/10.1109/AERO50100.2021.9438370 https://doi.org/10.1109/AERO50100.2021.9438370 , the mission blog is https://mars.nasa.gov/msl/mission-updates/ https://mars.nasa.gov/msl/mission-updates/ and this reddit channel is great: https://www.reddit.com/r/curiosityrover/ https://www.reddit.com/r/curiosityrover/ .
senectus1 3y ago
this is fascinating.. thanks for the insight!
Fatnino 3y ago
The rover has a bit of autonomy so it won't drive itself off an unseen cliff or whatever, right?
- foobarbecue 3y ago
  The autonomous driving capabilities on Curiosity (known as "guarded" and "autonav" modes) are quite limited and haven't been used recently. They don't work in rough terrain, and we've been in rough terrain for a while now. This means that we can only drive to the end of the 3D meshes generated from images from the previous parking spot. When the terrain is acceptable for autonav we can usually rely on orbital imagery and drive farther. We do set limits on suspension angles and tilt of the rover. So we'll say "stop driving if you are tilted more than 20 degrees," "stop driving if your differential angle goes above 7 degrees," etc.
hectormalot 3y ago
Thanks for explaining this. Super interesting stuff. It’s the type of comment I love to read here.