Robotics Concepts for Future Planetary Exploration Missions

This chapterPlanetary \b highlights general requirements for robotic concepts to support long-term exploration missions, for example to Moon or Mars. The chapter is organized following robotics capabilities that are needed for such complex exploration missions. For each capability, a generic description and discussion is provided, always illustrated by an example project or exemplary robot system. The capability to autonomously traverse large distances is discussed using the example of two EU-funded R&D projects. In the first project, core components for autonomous navigation were verified in a large-scale Martian analogue mission, in which more than 1 km of desert terrain could be traversed autonomously. In the second project, the autonomous handling of opportunistic science was added to the long-distance exploration task. To traverse extremely rough terrains, new concepts for mobility are required. This is discussed using the examples of a six-legged walking and climbing robot inspired by ants, and a hybrid rover featuring four wheels with a special legged-wheel design. Combining both long-distance and rough-terrain mobility capabilities in one single rover design is difficult. Nevertheless, for scenarios where a rover first has to cover long distances, e.g., from the landing site to a scientifically interesting region, and then wants to explore a scientifically interesting but hard-to-access site in that region, we need a system that combines both capabilities. A possible solution is a system of systems, or a multi-robot exploration system, where units with different capabilities are solving the exploration problem collaboratively. This concept is demonstrated with a modular system in which a wheeled rover and a smaller legged rover form a very efficient robot team. To explore extremely hard-to-reach places, such as crater walls, canyons, or confined spaces like the lava tubes discovered on both Moon and Mars, even more than two collaborative robots are required. We present another EU-funded project that has the objective to demonstrate, in a Lunar analogue mission, how a heterogeneous team of three autonomous robots can explore a lava tube on the Moon. Finally, the assembly of infrastructure is an important aspect of future robotic missions. This includes the set-up of scientific infrastructures, such as telescopes, on the Moon, as well as the preparation of habitats prior to human arrival. These tasks are highly complex and do not only require all the robotic capabilities described above, but also the capability of robots to cooperate with human astronauts. An example for a robotic system that fulfils these requirements is given with a project that investigated human–robot cooperation to set up infrastructure components on the Moon.