This is how Perseverance rolls (almost) alone on Mars


The Perseverance rover is advancing on Mars, closely watched by NASA. However, the agency leaves more and more autonomy to its rover. She showed on video how the robot manages to manage almost on its own.

The Perseverance rover continues its wanderings on Mars. But how exactly does NASA’s robot move? Is it different from previous Martian rolling machines? The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) provided some answers in a video broadcast on April 8, 2022.

The space agency explains how its team responsible for driving the rover uses AutoNav, the navigation program installed on board Perseverance. This software developed by JPL allows the vehicle to calculate its trajectory without human intervention, by anticipating the risks in its environment using images taken by its cameras. Curiosity was also equipped with it and the program could be improved for Perseverance. While Curiosity had to stop to analyze the images and then choose its route, Perseverance can do it while moving.

Perseverance drives more and more autonomously

To plan Perseverance’s routes and determine where it should stop, planners use 3D glasses to observe the terrain surrounding the robot. They thus contemplate images obtained the day before by the rover. During Perseverance’s first year of activity on Mars, humans played a very active role in guiding the robot in this way.

But, as the video clearly shows, the rover is increasingly driven to drive independently using AutoNav – in particular because it has to travel greater distances, faster than before. The rover thus becomes capable of crossing more complex areas independently, the JPL trusting it to go from point A to point B while avoiding potential dangers (rocks, sand, craters).

He is currently crossing an area close to his landing site and heading towards a delta, i.e. an area where an ancient river probably flowed into a body of water.

Admittedly, the robot does not seem to be going very fast from our point of view: the Perseverance rover is advancing on Mars 31 times slower than a human. However,Perseverance has already dethroned records for distances traveled by rovers on Mars, with 319 meters traveled in one day on Mars (ahead of Opportunity and its 219 meters in one day).

Explore the Red Planet with the Mars 2020 mission





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