FASTER

Forward Acquisition of Soil and Terrain data for Exploration Rover

In FASTER, a European consortium of six partners from four member states develops concepts and a demonstrator for an efficient in-situ acquisition of soil and terrain properties of the planned trajectory of a planetary exploration rover. This information will allow computing more reliable and exact traffic ability estimations. It will help to make a planetary rover move faster and with less risk of being stuck in unexpected obstacles (like regions of soft sand). The main technical components of the FASTER system will be a light-weight portable soil sensor and a small all-terrain scout rover.

Duration: 01.11.2011 till 30.11.2014
Donee: German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence GmbH
Sponsor: European Union
Grant number: funded by the European Union FP7-SPACE SPA.2011.2.1-02 GA284419
Partner: University of Surrey (UK), Airbus DS (UK), Space Application Services (BE), Liquifer Systems Group (AU), Astri Polska (PL)
Application Field: Space Robotics

Project details

FASTER primary rover (BRIDGET) and scout rover (Coyote II). (Photo: Roland Sonsalla, DFKI GmbH)
FASTER scout rover Coyote II equipped with full sensor suite, including its soil sensor system payload developed by University of Surrey. (Photo: Roland Sonsalla, DFKI GmbH)
CAD drawing of Coyote II with rover subsystems. (Photo: Roland Sonsalla, DFKI GmbH)

The goal of the FASTER project is to address three key technology developments for planetary exploration: forward looking surface properties characterization, innovative locomotion system for a scout type rover, and collaborative operation of a mother/scout pair.

1. The project will develop methods and instrumentation to characterize the properties of planetary surfaces in which robotic rover vehicles operate to be able to anticipate hazards in advance of locomotion and navigation over that surface. By assessing the soil traffic ability for a rover, decisions affecting rover safety (avoiding becoming stuck) can be reliably taken and hazards avoided.

2. The project will look at what innovation can be applied to ensure that the scout rover is able to operate with minimal risk of encountering hazardous situations from which it must recover.

3. FASTER will explore the feasibility and performance of a mother/scout rover pair combination and develop methods to achieve successful collaborative and autonomous robot operation. The forward looking scout rover will be equipped with a special combination of sensor technologies to acquire soil and terrain information. This information will allow a risk model to be constructed that indicates the potential hazards that the terrain represents to the following mother rover.

Reducing the locomotion and traverse risks using the proposed advances in autonomous mother / scout collaboration will allow mission operators to explore planetary surfaces with increased safety.

It will make possible new levels of autonomous operations by significantly reducing the greatest uncertainty factor – namely properties of the surface material on which the rover must operate. This will lead to increased operational efficiency and, when coupled with the increased richness of the surface properties data, will lead to much higher scientific returns per capital investment for each mission.

The single system development as well as the scientific context
of FASTER is presented within a project documentary.

For further information please visit the projects webpage: www.faster-fp7-space.eu

Videos

FASTER: Explore space faster and safer

The FASTER project will develop and demonstrate technology for sensing terrain ahead of a rover.

Publications

2015

Coyote III: Development of a Modular and highly Mobile Micro Rover
Roland Sonsalla, Joel Bessekon, Frank Kirchner
In Proceedings of the 13th Symposium on Advanced Space Technologies in Robotics and Automation (ASTRA-2015), (ASTRA-2015), Noordwijk, The Netherlands, ESA, May/2015. ESA.
FP7 FASTER project - Demonstration of Multi-platform Operation for Safer Planetary Traverses
E. Allouis, R. Marc, J. Gancet, Y. Nevatia, F. Cantori, Roland Sonsalla, M. Fritsche, J. Machowinski, T. Vögele, F. Comin, W. Lewinger, B. Yeomans, C. Saaj, Y. Gao, J. Delfa, P. Weclewski, K. Skocki, B. Imhof, S. Ransom, L. Richter
In Proceedings of the 13th Symposium on Advanced Space Technologies in Robotics and Automation (ASTRA-2015), (ASTRA-2015), Noordwijk, The Netherlands, ESA, May/2015. ESA.

2014

Scout Rover Applications for Forward Acqusition of Soil and Terrain Data
Roland Sonsalla, Mohammed Ahmed, Martin Fritsche, Joel Bessekon, Thomas Vögele
In Proceedings of EPSC Abstracts, (EPSC-2014), 07.9.-09.9.2014, Cascais, Portugal, o.A., volume Vol. 9, Sep/2014.
Autonomous Path Tracking Steering Controller for Extraterrestrial Terrain Exploration Rover
Mohammed Ahmed, Roland Sonsalla, Frank Kirchner
In 40th COSPAR Scientific Assembly 2014, (COSPAR-2014), 02.8.-10.8.2014, Moscow, Elsevier, Aug/2014.
The FASTER Micro Scout Rover Concept
Roland Sonsalla
In Proceedings of the RIC Project Day Workgroups "Electronic Design" and "Mechatronic Design", 24.7.-24.7.2014, Bremen, Selbstverag, series DFKI Documents, volume 14-05, pages 108-109, Jul/2014. DFKI Robotics Innovation Center Bremen. DFKI GmbH. ISBN: ISSN 0946-0098.
Design and Evaluation of Coyote II
Roland Sonsalla
In Proceedings of the RIC Project Day Workgroups "Electronic Design" and "Mechatronic Design", 24.7.-24.7.2014, Bremen, Selbstverlag, series DFKI Documents, volume 14-05, pages 78-85, Jul/2014. DFKI Robotics Innovation Center Bremen. DFKI GmbH. ISBN: ISSN 0946-0098 .
Design of a High Mobile Micro Rover within a Dual Rover Configuration for Autonomous Operations
Roland Sonsalla, Yashodhan Nevatia, Martin Fritsche, Joel Bessekon, Jeremi Gancet, Frank Kirchner
In Proceedings of the International Symposium on Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Automation in Space (i-SAIRAS 2014), (iSAIRAS-2014), 17.6.-19.6.2014, Montreal, o.A., Jun/2014.
Coyote II - Observations on Mobility Performance in distinct Terrains
Roland Sonsalla
In Proceedings of the RIC Project Day workgroups, 17.9.-17.9.2014, Selbstverlag, series DFKI Documents, volume 14_06, number 1406, 2014. Robotivs Innovation Center Bremen. DFKI GmbH.

2013

Improved Traversal for Planetary Rovers through Forward Acquisition of Terrain Trafficability
Yashodhan H. Nevatia, Jeremi Gancet, Francois Bulens, Thomas Vögele, Roland Sonsalla, Chakravarthini M. Saaj, William A. Lewinger, Marcus Matthews, Brian Yeomans, Yang Gao, Elie Allouis, Barbara Imhof, Stephen Ransom, Lutz Richter, Krzysztof Skocki
In Proceedings of International Conference on Robotics and Automation, (ICRA-2013), 06.5.-10.5.2013, Karlsruhe, o.A., May/2013.
Concept Study For The Faster Micro Scout Rover
Roland Sonsalla, Martin Fritsche, Thomas Vögele, Frank Kirchner
In Proceedings of the 12th Symposium on Advanced Space Technologies in Robotics and Automation, (ASTRA-2013), 15.5.-17.5.2013, Noordwijk, o.A., May/2013.
Safe Long-Range Traversal for Planetary Rovers through Forward Sensing
Y. Nevatia, F. Bulens, J. Gancet, Y. Gao, S. Al-Mili, R. Kandiyil, Roland Sonsalla, Martin Fritsche, Thomas Vögele, E. Allouis, K. Skocki, S. Ransom, C. Saaj, M. Matthews, B. Yeomans, L. Richter, T.P. Kaupisch
In Proceedings of the 12th Symposium on Advanced Space Technologies in Robotics and Automation, (ASTRA-2013), 15.5.-17.5.2013, Noordwijk, o.A., May/2013.

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