On the eve of the fourth year on the job for Mars' rovers mission control will begin testing several new software upgrades that give the rovers much more capabilities to tackle the hostile Martian planet. One such capability gives the rovers the ability to think up to 3 or 4 steps ahead of itself in terms of navigating through often densly populated rock fields. Previously the rovers could only think in one step increments where if they encountered an obsticle they would try another direction until sometimes unsucessfully it found an unobstructed path. Now, if sucessfull, the rovers will be able to navigate through a maze. Another new technology is the capability of "visual target tracking" where it can recognize an object and remember it is that same object even when viewing it at different angles. Other significant advancements that will be tested include dust devil and cloud recognition, and a "go and touch" feature.
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2006-152
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment