Fink and his team at the University of Arizona have been working on the development of autonomous exploration technology, including drones that can explore tense underground environments. The Deep Desert Communication Network (DDCN) approach allows rovers to navigate underground environments without losing contact with their “mother rover” on the surface. The DDCN approach allows for the exploration of Martian lava tube caves and the subsurface oceans of icy moons. The team is also developing a submersible robot that might be a lander that could float on a lake or sit on the ice atop a subsurface ocean. They are training their “Hansels” and “Gretels” to drop the breadcrumbs, allowing for a functioning mesh communication network. A paper by Fink, Fuhrman, Zuniga, and Tarbell describes a Hansel & Gretel breadcrumb-style dynamic communication network paradigm for planetary subsurface exploration.
Hansel and Gretel’s Breadcrumb Trick Helps Robots Explore Mars and Beyond
Engineers at the University of Arizona have developed an innovative system that enables autonomous vehicles to locate concealed areas on other planets, such as lava tubes and caves, which would be ideal habitats for astronauts. The system would enable a swarm of robots to explore subsurface environments on other planets, working as a team without human intervention.
In a recent paper published in Advances in Space Research, the primary author Wolfgang Fink, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at UArizona, discussed a communication network that would allow rovers, lake landers, and even submersible vehicles to operate independently, using the “breadcrumb scenario” to remain in contact with a mother rover or a blimp.
The “breadcrumb scenario” was inspired by the story of Hansel and Gretel, who dropped breadcrumbs to trace their way back. In this scenario, the “breadcrumbs” are miniaturized sensors that pivot on the rovers as they enter a cave or other subsurface environment. The rovers go on their own, connecting to each other via a wireless data connection, placing communication nodes along the way. The rovers continue to monitor their environment, regardless of how much distance they have taken since they placed the last node.
One of the new aspects of this system is the notion of “opportunistic deployment,” which means that the “breadcrumbs” are deployed when required, rather than according to a predetermined schedule. This system would help overcome the limitations of current technology in safely traversing environments on comets, asteroids, moons, and planetary bodies.
According to Fink and his co-authors, this approach might help address one of NASA’s Space Technology Grand Challenges, which is to develop autonomous systems for space exploration that can operate safely in complex and unstructured environments.
The researchers believe that lava tubes and caves would be ideal habitats for astronauts because they offer protection from harmful cosmic radiation and don’t require the construction of a structure. Additionally, these hollows are believed to be excellent candidates for keeping Martian life intact, making them ideal targets for future spacecraft, robots, and human interplanetary exploration.
In this artist’s impression of the breadcrumb scenario, autonomous rovers can be seen exploring a lava tube after being deployed by a mother rover that remains at the entrance to maintain contact with an orbiter or a blimp. The mother rover acts as an orchestrator, controlling the subordinate rovers’ movements.
In conclusion, the development of the “breadcrumb scenario” by the engineers at the University of Arizona is a significant advancement in space exploration. This technology has the potential to aid the robotic exploration of Mars and other planets, enabling the discovery of hidden locations that would be ideal for astronauts. The innovative approach of “opportunistic deployment” is a crucial aspect of this system that would allow autonomous vehicles to work together as a team, independent of human intervention.
Fink’s Rovers: Paving the Way for Autonomous Space Exploration
The development of autonomous space exploration technology has been a major focus of researchers for years, and Wolfgang Fink and his team at the University of Arizona have been at the forefront of this field. Their experimental rovers are being used to test hardware and software related to autonomous exploration, including cameras and navigation equipment.
One of the significant developments from Fink’s team is the tier-scalable reconnaissance algorithm that they developed in the early 2000s. Additionally, they have been exploring the use of drones to explore tense underground environments, similar to those seen in the film “Prometheus.”
In a letter to NASA in 2019, Fink explained the concept of the Deep Desert Communication Network (DDCN), which enables a team of rovers to navigate even the most challenging underground environments without losing contact with their “mother rover” on the surface. The DDCN approach allows the rovers to communicate between themselves, compensate for dead spots and signal blackouts, and remain connected through the remaining nodes if some of them die.
Fink claimed that all the data collected by the robotic explorers would return to the mother rover on the surface once they have completed their job. As a result, there is no need to retrieve the robots once they have completed their job, since they are not reusable. Instead, they are designed to be expendable and explore as far as possible.
The DDCN approach allows for the exploration of Martian lava tube caves and the subsurface oceans of the icy moons. Victor Baker, a planetary scientist, said the proposed concept “holds promise” and allows for first-time access to a thing or place while providing a means of communicating what is discovered to creative minds who are seeking clarification.
Fink’s team is also developing a submersible robot that might be a lander, which could float on a lake or sit on the ice atop a subsurface ocean. The nodes have the ability to collect data themselves and ingest the data back to the lander, ensuring that data can be retrieved even if there are connectivity issues.
The team is now developing the actual mechanism by which the rovers would deploy the communication nodes. They are training their “Hansels” and “Gretels” to drop the breadcrumbs, allowing for a functioning mesh communication network.
In conclusion, Fink’s team at the University of Arizona is paving the way for autonomous space exploration with their innovative technology. The DDCN approach and submersible robots have the potential to explore even the most challenging environments on other planets, and the ability to retrieve valuable data is crucial for space exploration.
In a paper published on 11 February 2023 in Advances in Space Research, Wolfgang Fink, Connor Fuhrman, Andres Nuncio Zuniga, and Mark Tarbell describe a Hansel & Gretel breadcrumb-style dynamic communication network paradigm for planetary subsurface exploration. The paper’s DOI is 10.1016/j.asr.2023.02.012.
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