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NASA Gives Mars Rover Extra Smarts

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the rover-that-keeps-on-giving dept.

coondoggie writes "NASA today said it upgraded the software controlling its Mars Rover Opportunity to let it make its own decisions about what items like rocks and interesting red planet formations to focus its cameras on. The new system, which NASA uploaded over the past few months, is called Autonomous Exploration for Gathering Increased Science, or AEGIS and it lets Opportunity's computer examine images that the rover takes with its wide-angle navigation camera after a drive, and recognize rocks that meet specified criteria, such as rounded shape or light color. It can then center its narrower-angle panoramic camera on the chosen target and take multiple images through color filters, NASA stated."

12 of 116 comments (clear)

  1. What's This Line in the Release Notes About? by eldavojohn · · Score: 5, Funny

    Good upgrade but I really gotta question the added 'inferiority complex routine' listed in the release notes that requires the rover to periodically contemplate its ultimate fate and update a twitter feed where NASA engineers can either encourage the rover or ridicule it.

    --
    My work here is dung.
  2. I for one by c++0xFF · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...welcome our newly upgraded martian overlord.

  3. Technology behind this? by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Can anyone give any insight behind how they perform upgrades like this?

    I'm sure we all have a "friend" who has bricked a router doing something. Thankfully my Sheeva Plug has JTAG built in and was able to get to the interface through that.

    Send everything, checksum it and then flash? If something goes wrong (solar wind) is there a very basic firmware that sits and listens? Probably some basic security so the Chinese can't sit there and flood it with fake update requests?

    I'm sure stuff is a lot more fun when pings aren't measured in seconds or minutes.

    1. Re:Technology behind this? by NEDHead · · Score: 3, Funny

      Geek Squad goes on site, does a full backup, and certifies successful update.

    2. Re:Technology behind this? by robot256 · · Score: 5, Informative

      There are multiple levels of software on the rover. There is a failsafe module to turn everything off if it runs out of power, there is a bootloader OS to handle software crashes and give memory dumps to ground controllers, there is the main OS that runs the vehicle, and then there are scripts the main OS can run. This is one of the scripts.

      Note that the summary says they spent "months" uploading the new software--they did it very meticulously, in chunks, with checksums, and probably read back the whole memory before giving it execute permissions.

      If you were keeping up with the news when they launched the rovers, you might remember that they launched with only the bootloader installed--they actually uploaded the vehicle OS mid-flight before they reached Mars. So something like this isn't a big deal once it's been tested within an inch of its life to get "flight" qualified. The big deal is that they actually got it that far--NASA has historically been very reluctant to give their craft any more autonomy than absolutely necessary. Hopefully we are turning a corner on that.

    3. Re:Technology behind this? by DerekLyons · · Score: 3, Informative

      Send everything, checksum it and then flash? If something goes wrong (solar wind) is there a very basic firmware that sits and listens?

      Probably something like:

      1. Verify the hell out of the code on an emulator.
      2. Verify the hell out of the code on the engineering testbed (a rover computer sitting on a table).
      3. Verify the hell out of the code on the engineering development rover (a real rover at JPL running on various simulated terrains).
      4. Send everything, twice. Compare one copy to the other. Checksum each copy received twice. Send the checksums to Earth twice. After receiving the enable and execute codes (which have protections of their own) from Earth, flash it from data storage into firmware. Checksum the firmware twice. After receiving the enable and execute codes from Earth (which have protections of their own), transfer control to the new software (keeping in mind the OS is robust and has various protection features of it's own to prevent apps from bricking the computer and limited protect against trashing the rover).

       
      Seriously, the only people who take validating the code and the authority to execute it more seriously than NASA are the guys at the launch control consoles out in the missile silos and SSBNs.
       
      But they don't beat NASA by much. NASA's unmanned branch does take lessons learned pretty seriously (they've bricked probes before), and when the budget allows does things the right way.

  4. One down, one still very good to go. by JoshuaZ · · Score: 3

    I'm amazed at how long Spirit and Opportunity have lasted. Spirit is stuck in place but is still giving us very good data and Opportunity is still kicking and researching well. Aside from some minor problems with the robotic arm, Opportunity is doing fine. These missions have now lasted years when they were expected to last 90 days. These are really amazing pieces of engineering and I hope that NASA is taking a lot of notes about them for how to design future probes. The engineers who made these must be very proud. And now one of their two babies is getting to make decisions for itself! Awww...

    1. Re:One down, one still very good to go. by beakerMeep · · Score: 3, Funny

      Just wait, another year or two it will be asking to borrow the car.

      --
      meep
  5. It's amazing to me by Digital+Pizza · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ... that they can do a software upgrade of this kind adding a major feature such as this, remotely, without "bricking" it, and without the ability to add more CPU or RAM. Amazing job, guys!

    --
    We apologize for the inconvenience.
  6. Re:AEGIS by Jainith · · Score: 4, Funny

    Autonomous Exploration for Gathering Increased Science

    Clearly from the lameness of the title they chose the acronym first and then found a title to fit it. Why anyone would think its appropriate to use the acronym AEGIS for something that doesn't involve defense or a shield I dont know.

  7. AEGIS by PPH · · Score: 3, Funny

    Another Excuse to Get Itself Stuck

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  8. I'm in acronym hell. by sammy+baby · · Score: 3, Funny

    The new system, which NASA uploaded over the past few months, is called Autonomous Exploration for Gathering Increased Science, or AEGIS and...

    Well, thank god it's gathering increased science. I would hate to think that we were collecting decreased science. Perhaps we could design a program and call it Autonomous System for Scientific and HOlistic Learning and Exploration.

    Then again, we could have called it Rover OS 2.0.