Mars Exploration Rover Mobility and Robotic Arm Operational Performance

Abstract

Increased attention has been focused in recent years on human-machine systems, how they are architected, and how they should operate. The purpose of this paper is to describe an actual instance of a practical human-robot system used on a NASA Mars rover mission that has been underway since January 2004 involving daily interaction between humans on Earth and mobile robots on Mars. The emphasis is on the human-robot collaborative arrangement and the performance enabled by mobility and robotic arm software functionality during the first 90 days of the mission. Mobile traverse distance, accuracy, and rate as well as robotic arm operational accuracy achieved by the system is presented.