GMV performs full-blown rover field tests

The technology multinational GMV, developer of planetary-exploration robotics systems, has chosen Dehesa de Navalvillar to the north of Madrid in Colmenar Viejo as the site for field tests under the GOTCHA project.

The GMV-primed GOTCHA project (GOAC TRL Increase Convenience Enhancements Hardening And Application Extension), also involving the participation of the Madrid university Universidad Carlos III, aims to achieve an autonomous framework for planetary-exploration robots, increasing their Technology Readiness Level (TRL) for use in future space systems such as the upcoming Mars Sample Return mission.

One of the biggest challenges to be met in terms of improving planetary exploration, Mars in this case, and achieving rock- and soil-sample-return capabilities, is the development and demonstration of the technologies and capacities needed by any rover for making long runs and making autonomous and independent decisions (without communicating back with Earth) on its progress, risk reduction and harnessing all science-information compilation opportunities that turn up.

With this aim in view the field tests being carried out at the moment in Colmenar Vejo are focusing on the testing and vetting of key Mars-exploration technologies that work in a totally autonomous and independent way (on long runs without having to communicate with Earth). For this purpose an autonomous system has been fitted on the ESA’s RAT prototype rover.

Results to date have been successfully presented in the ESA’s 2nd International Mars Sample Return Conference, held from 25 to 27 April in Germany. The purpose of this conference was to establish a better understanding of the options for carrying out a mission of this type to the red planet, and also to share the plans drawn up by both agencies and showcase the technological maturity, autonomy and scientific capability of projects developed by private industry.

Mars Sample Return is a joint project of the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA for bringing Mars samples back to Earth, giving us a better understanding of the planet’s characteristics and underpinning the design of necessary infrastructure for astronauts’ future voyages to the planet. In the coming years, at different moments, both organizations will be sending three or four different spacecraft. In 2020 a sample-caching rover will be launched; from 2026 to 2028 a surface element will be launched containing the Mars Ascent Vehicle and a sample-fetching rover. In 2024 and 2026 one or two spacecraft will be launched to rendezvous with the orbital sample element, collect the surface sample and come back to Earth.

As well as a proven technological maturity, scientific capacity and autonomy, the mission will call for a robot capable of: 1) travelling autonomously from a starting point (e.g., a lander or Earth-return module) to an end point (e.g., a soil- and rock-sample store prepared by another robot or by another lander); 2) carrying out ad-hoc science during this journey (e.g., if the rover detects rocks with a high scientific interest, whereupon it would take samples and perform analyses on the spot) and 3) making its way back to the Earth-return module with the collected soil sample(s).

In order to boost the autonomy level GMV has added several robot software elements to the GOTCHA project: a robotic controller, path-planner and trajectory control, plus an onboard mission planner that controls the actions of the rover platform in order to achieve high-level goals (e.g., gather science on a given area).

Colmenar Viejo Ayuntamiento (Town Council), for its part, has again been keen to support GMV in these field tests, once more making available to it the Dehesa de Navalvillar as the “Martian” testing ground. The company, in return, has taken careful note of the indications given for proper, impact-minimizing use of the site to prevent any degradation of one of the natural environments of the Sierra de Madrid most highly prized by local residents.

In the words of the Mayor of Colmenar Viejo, Jorge García Díaz, “For us it is an honor to be able to collaborate in this space-robotics project and do our bit for a top-level scientific project like the future Mars missions.

For his part, Mariella Graziano, Manager of GMV’s Flight and Robotics Segment, has stressed the importance of the preliminary tests on Earth. “Although we can nowadays draw on a host of rover developments, training on Earth is still essential to ensure the success of projects of this type”.

Colmenar Viejo and in particular the Dehesa de Navalvillar are the ideal site for tests of this type. For that very reason it has also been put forward as the venue for preliminary tests (before going to the site defined as planet analog) with many collaborative robots under various projects of the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 projects, to be carried out in 2020.