Design summary reader respond draft 3

The article “NASA’s Self-Driving Perseverance Mars Rover ‘Takes the Wheel’” (2021) highlights the capability of the Perseverance rover's navigation system which is used to traverse on the Martian surface to look for signs of ancient life along with locating and transporting sample of rock back to Earth for analysis. The navigation system consists of the Auto navigation system, where it can build 3D mapping of the terrain, identifying the hazards and planning a route around obstacles automatically, Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU), which provides 3-axis information on its position like the vertical, horizontal, and side-to-side (yaw) movements, Navcam, two colour stereo Navigation Cameras which typically take wide angle photographs that are used to plan the next moves of the vehicle or object tracking, Hazard Camera, which is mounted on the rover body four on the front and two on the rear, was able to capture 3D views of the surrounding which is used for detecting hazards of the front and back pathways of the rover, such as large rocks, trenches, or sand dunes. Visual odometry is a function where the cameras are being used to estimate position changes by estimating the displacement of many image features tracked between successive image captures of overlapping scenes. It is being known that perseverance rover is an improvement from other predecessor’s rover like Curiosity, Spirit and Opportunity where improvement was being made on the AutoNav, Rover Compute Element (RCE), Perseverance’s wheels and the rovers engineering cameras.

One of the features that was improved from the Curiosity was AutoNav, The article “NASA's Perseverance rover is driving itself around Mars using an enhanced auto-navigation system” (2021) reported that that the enhance Autonav from Perseverance was made faster by four to five times was able to hit a top speed of 393 feet (120 meters) per hour from its predecessor Curiosity, equipped with an earlier version of AutoNav, covers about 66 feet (20 meters) per hour. The improvement allows the rover to cover more ground and accomplish more tasks.

Other features that were improved from the predecessor’s rover like Spirit and Opportunity was the Rover Compute Element (RCE). As some of the RCE job is to register signs of the rover health, like checking temperatures, and adjusting temperature control, accordingly. The article “NASA’s Self-Driving Perseverance Mars Rover ‘Takes the Wheel’” (2021) stated that current Perseverance rover has two computers which it is able employ one of its computers just for navigation on the surface while its main computer can devote itself to the many other tasks to keep the rover healthy and active.

In addition, Perseverance rover wheels were also modified, as Trosper (2021, para. 13) said that “Curiosity couldn’t AutoNav because of the wheel-wear issue, as small, sharp, pointy rocks starting to put holes in the wheels, and the AutoNav didn’t avoid those”. The Perseverance’s wheels are narrower than Curiosity's, but bigger in diameter and made of thicker aluminium, they each feature 48 treads that look like slightly wavy lines, as opposed to Curiosity’s 24 chevron-pattern treads.

NASA (n.d) stated that the Perseverance cameras were also upgraded from its previous rover Curiosity, “the new cameras can also take pictures while the rover is moving” (NASA, n.d, "Enhanced" Engineering Cameras for Driving sections) and “these enhanced cameras also give much more detailed information, in colours” (NASA, n.d, Engineering Cameras sections) while Curiosity cameras captured image in grayscale. Perseverance carries six Hazard Detection Cameras, called HazCams which is two extra cameras than curiosity four body HazCams.

In conclusion, the rover navigation system consists of many features to make its auto functions work and to navigate on the Martian surface.

Reference

National Aeronautics and Space Administration. (2021, Jul 2). NASA’s Self-Driving Perseverance Mars Rover ‘Takes the Wheel’. https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/nasa-s-self-driving-perseverance-mars-rover-takes-the-wheel 

Business Insider. (2021, Jul 4). NASA's Perseverance rover is driving itself around Mars using an enhanced auto-navigation system. https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-perseverance-rover-self-autonomous-drive-mars-autonav-system-2021-7 

National Aeronautics and Space Administration. (n.d). "Nerves" for balance and position. https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/spacecraft/rover/brains/ 

National Aeronautics and Space Administration. (n.d). Engineering Cameras.  https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/spacecraft/rover/cameras/ 

National Aeronautics and Space Administration. (n.d). The Cameras on the Mars Curiosity Rover. https://mars.nasa.gov/msl/spacecraft/rover/cameras/#hazcams 

National Aeronautics and Space Administration. (n.d). Rover "Brains". https://mars.nasa.gov/mer/mission/rover/brains/ 

National Aeronautics and Space Administration. (n.d). The Rover's "Body". https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/spacecraft/rover/body/ 

Hazcam. (2021, April 21). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hazcam 

Navcam. (2021, June 29). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navcam#cite_ref-4