Autonomous Sample Acquisition for Planetary and Small Body Explorations (original) (raw)
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Sample Manipulation with Robotic Arm for planetary exploration
The concept of a general-purpose analyser for extra-terrestrial soil and environment drives the conceptual design of this package. The benefit of an autonomous laboratory for Planetary Science objectives is an exciting application of engineering and technological aspects. The needing to investigate the soil in depth, in conjunction with surface and atmospheric investigation, leads to the design of a sample manipulation chain composed by a two servicing mechanism, at present under prototyping phase: a 3 D.o.F. robotic arm and a 2 D.o.F. micro mechanism device.
Sample acquisition, processing and handling systems for future Mars missions
Acta Astronautica, 2007
The next generation of Mars exploration robotics will have equipment to acquire subsurface samples, process and refine them, and transfer them to science instruments for observation. In 2003, MD Robotics and NORCAT, under contract with the Canadian Space Agency, designed, developed and tested building block technologies for a sample acquisition, processing and handling system for a future Mars mission. Four key technologies were developed to support this system: drill bit development for varied substrates, sample acquisition mechanisms to acquire cores at depth, material transport technologies to move waste material up the hole, and sample reduction technologies, studying the means to efficiently reduce samples into uniform particle sizes. This paper will discuss the technology development, the driving requirements and the test results.
Ceas Space Journal, 2020
The analysis of robotic systems (e.g. landers and rovers) involved in sampling operations on planetary bodies is crucial to ensure mission success, since those operations generate forces that could affect the stability of the robotic system. This paper presents MISTRAL (MultIdisciplinary deSign Tool for Robotic sAmpLing), a novel tool conceived for trade space exploration during early conceptual and preliminary design phases, where a rapid and broad evaluation is required for a very high number of configurations and boundary conditions. The tool rapidly determines the preliminary design envelope of a sampling apparatus to guarantee the stability condition of the whole robotic system. The tool implements a three-dimensional analytical model capable to reproduce several scenarios, being able to accept various input parameters, including the physical and geometrical characteristics of the robotic system, the properties related to the environment and the characteristics related to the sampling system. This feature can be exploited to infer multidisciplinary high-level requirements concerning several other elements of the investigated system, such as robotic arms and footpads. The presented research focuses on the application of MISTRAL to landers. The structure of the tool and the analysis model are presented. Results from the application of the tool to real mission data from NASA's Phoenix Mars lander are included. Moreover, the tool was adopted for the definition of the high-level requirements of the lander for a potential future mission to the surface of Saturn's moon Enceladus, currently under investigation at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. This case study was included to demonstrate the tool's capabilities. MISTRAL represents a comprehensive, versatile, and powerful tool providing guidelines for cognizant decisions in the early and most crucial stages of the design of robotic systems involved in sampling operations on planetary bodies.
Technologies for mars on-orbit robotic sample capture and transfer concept
2017 IEEE Aerospace Conference, 2017
Potential Mars Sample Return (MSR) would need a robotic autonomous Orbital Sample (OS) capture and manipulation toward returning the samples to Earth. The OS would be in Martian orbit where a sample capture orbiter could find it and rendezvous with it. The orbiter would capture the OS, manipulate it to a preferential orientation for the samples, transition it through steps required to break-the-chain with Mars, stowing it in a containment vessel or an Earth Entry Vehicle and providing a redundant containment to the OS (e.g., by closing and sealing the lid of the EEV). In this paper, we discuss component technologies developed for in-laboratory evaluation and maturation of concepts toward the robotic capture and manipulation of an Orbital Sample. We discuss techniques for simulating 0-g dynamics of a spherical OS, including contact, in a laboratory setting. In this, we leverage a 5dof gantry system and, alternately, a 6dof KUKA robotic arm to simulate the OS motion. Both the gantry a...
Drilling automation for subsurface planetary exploration
2008
Future in-situ lunar/martian resource utilization and characterization, as well as the scientific search for life on Mars, will require access to the subsurface and hence drilling. Drilling on Earth is hard-an art form more than an engineering discipline. The limited mass, energy and manpower in planetary drilling situations makes application of terrestrial drilling techniques problematic. The Drilling Automation for Mars Exploration (DAME) project's purpose is to develop and field-test drilling automation and robotics technologies for projected use in missions to the Moon and Mars in the 2011-15 period.
Testing a Robotic System for Collecting and Transferring Samples on Mars
2011
Handling samples of material on planetary surfaces, requires a complex autonomous robotic chain for a sample-return mission. From the ESA-funded Mars Surface Sample Transfer and Manipulation Study, the research described here is particularly targeting a potential Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission -proposed for mid 2020s. Based on a preliminary design of the end-to-end sample-handling chain, critical elements were selected for breadboard tests. One breadboard was built to collect and package soil samples in sample vessels. Secondly, an end-effector for a robotic arm was built. The third breadboard was a detailed software simulation of the overall transfer chain, supplemented by some vision-control hardware tests. Testing verified critical aspects of the performance and validated the designs of these key elements of the robotics chain. This paper presents the designs and the latest results from the test campaign.
Earth and Space 2010, 2010
The Sample Acquisition/Sample Processing and Handling subsystem for the Mars Science Laboratory is a highly-mechanized, Rover-based sampling system that acquires powdered rock and regolith samples from the Martian surface, sorts the samples into fine particles through sieving, and delivers small portions of the powder into two science instruments inside the Rover. SA/SPaH utilizes 17 actuated degrees-offreedom to perform the functions needed to produce 5 sample pathways in support of the scientific investigation on Mars. Both hardware redundancy and functional redundancy are employed in configuring this sampling system so some functionality is retained even with the loss of a degree-of-freedom. Intentional dynamic environments are created to move sample while vibration isolators attenuate this environment at the sensitive instruments located near the dynamic sources. In addition to the typical flight hardware qualification test program, two additional types of testing are essential for this kind of sampling system: characterization of the intentionally-created dynamic environment and testing of the sample acquisition and processing hardware functions using Mars analog materials in a low pressure environment. The overall subsystem design and configuration are discussed along with some of the challenges, tradeoffs, and lessons learned in the areas of fault tolerance, intentional dynamic environments, and special testing.
Through the development of the Shuttle Remote Manipulators and the Mobile Servicing System (MSS) for the International Space Station, Canada will have invested over $1.2 billion dollars in space robotics. Now that many elements of the MSS have been delivered to orbit, one of the next logical steps for Canada to apply its space robotics expertise is planetary exploration. One of the identified planetary exploration needs is to robotically sample the surface and subsurface of Mars. Canada is in the process of negotiating contributions to international Mars exploration missions and is uniquely positioned to address this opportunity due to its world leadership position in mining automation and in space robotics. Advanced technology development was performed to position Canada for such opportunities. A 10-meter class diamond-bit coring drill was developed, prototyped and proven to have reached a Technology Readiness Level of TRL-4 as per NASA and JPL's definition. In addition, a family of manipulators for performing a broad variety of tasks on the Martian surface have been designed. A prototype of such a manipulator was built. It is operational in Earth gravity and has undergone functional testing in laboratory conditions. Most of the lessons learned through the development of this manipulator are directly relevant to the development of the sample acquisition, preparation and handling for the MSL mission.
Mechanical Design and Modelling of a Robotic Planetary Drilling System
Volume 2: 30th Annual Mechanisms and Robotics Conference, Parts A and B, 2006
ABSTRACT Deep space drilling is necessary for appropriate chemical and biological sampling for subsurface exploration. The Robotic Planetary Drilling System (RPDS), which is currently being developed by our team, is designed to be a compact selfpropelled, ...
2010
Several proposed or planned planetary science missions to Mars and other Solar System bodies over the next decade require subsurface access by drilling. This paper discusses the problems of remote robotic drilling, an automation and control architecture based loosely on observed human behaviors in drilling on Earth, and an overview of robotic drilling field test results using this architecture since 2005. Both rotary-drag and rotarypercussive drills are targeted. A hybrid diagnostic approach incorporates heuristics, model-based reasoning and vibration monitoring with neural nets. Ongoing work leads to flight-ready drilling software.