Robotic Drill Systems for Planetary Exploration

Abstract

The objective of the systems described in this report was to demonstrate that lowpowered drill systems could be fully autonomous in capturing subsurface samples, handing off samples to science instruments, and drilling. Two drills were designed with a logically selected suite of sensors and hardware which allowed for data to be collected both above and below the surface. Information received from these sensors was fed back to an intelligent drill control system to enable autonomy. Testing of these two drills at Mars analog sites demonstrated that fully autonomous drilling is possible with low-powered drill systems.