Robotic Recon and Follow-up for Human Exploration of the Moon
During the Apollo program, we learned a great deal about the Moon from the numerous surface sorties performed by astronauts. These sorties returned a wealth of new information and helped advance our understanding of the lunar surface and near-subsurface. However, limitations of time and resources severely constrained these field traverses, particularly in terms of observational flexibility. In this talk, Dr. Fong will describe how robots working before and after humans can significantly improve exploration of the Moon and other planetary surfaces. Robotic reconnaissance, or “recon”, prior to human missions can be used to improve traverse planning, to reduce operational risk, and to increase crew productivity. Similarly, informed by the results of human field research, robotic “follow-up” can help expand our scientific knowledge of a targeted region.
The NASA Ames Intelligent Robotics Group (in collaboration with the Mars Institute, Arizona State University, the University of Texas, and the NASA Lunar Science Institute) has been developing “robotic recon” and “robotic follow-up” since 2007. The group has employed these techniques in analog field tests with humans and robots in Washington, Arizona, and the Canadian Arctic. This talk will present the results and lessons learned to date.
Dr. Terry Fong is the Director of the Intelligent Robotics Group at the
NASA Ames Research Center. From 2002 to 2004, he was the deputy leader of the Virtual Reality and Active Interfaces Group at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL). From 1997 to 2000, he was Vice President of Development for Fourth Planet, a developer of real-time visualization software. Dr. Fong has published more than seventy papers in field robotics, human-robot interaction, and robot user interfaces. He received his B.S. and M.S. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his Ph.D. in Robotics from Carnegie Mellon University.