Proposal Submitted to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration

February 18, 1997

Antarctic Meteorite Search Technology

Principal Investigator:
William Whittaker
	(412) 268-6559

Robotics Institute
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA 15213

For the period 10/1/97 to 9/30/98

Amount requested: $600,000

Antarctic Meteorite Search Technology
1.	Introduction
The recent discovery and analysis of the ALH84001 and EETA79001 meteorites has led scientists to conclude that life may have once existed on Mars. While NASA has a major program underway for Mars search for life and sample return, even under the best scenarios the first sample will not be returned for over 10 years. Although only 12 of the 15,000 known meteorite fragments are believed to be Martian in origin, both of those containing signs indicative of life were discovered in Antarctica. A concerted search effort there has the strong likelihood of yielding additional Martian meteorites in the near term, but thus far human search capabilities have been limited to slow visual sensing of surface meteorites.
The primary goal of this program is to produce technology that will enable mobile robots to find more meteorites than can be collected by human searches alone, thus increasing the rate of collection and number of collected samples. In a few years, such robots could find hundreds of meteorites not visible to humans, overlooked by humans, or in areas not covered by human search. 
2.	Objectives
The detailed technical objectives are to:
•	Research and validate sensing technologies for locating meteorites
•	Research and validate sensing technologies for confirming meteorites
•	Develop a software system for processing, fusing, and interpreting data from multiple meteorite detection and confirmation sensors
•	Research planning algorithms for autonomous patterned search for meteorites (strategic search for both narrow and wide area coverage)
•	Develop an interface enabling remote scientists to oversee search operations and annotate data downlinked from the meteorobots
3.				Justification
The technologies developed by this program will enable the Antarctic Meteorite Search Field Demonstration (AMSFD) program. The results obtained in the proposed technology development and field testing efforts are critical to success in the demonstration program, in the form of technologies for meteorite detection and confirmation, pattern-based robotic navigation, communications, and interfaces for prolonged meteorite searches in Antarctica.
The Antarctic environment is analogous to those encountered in planetary operations, and the technologies developed for the Antarctic will generalize to feed such operations.
4.		Technical approach
The technical approach is to address each aspect of meteorite discovery in turn: 
•	Effectively search those areas likely to contain meteorites
•	Detect and identify candidate meteorites
•	Confirm their extraterrestrial origin
The challenge is to enable meteorobots in Antarctica to systematically and exhaustively search an area. During the search, they must detect and confirm a surface meteorite, record its position with accuracy better than 1 meter, photograph the rock in situ, and tag its location with a visible marker.
This program will leverage on existing technologies and build upon the results of the Meteorite Search Technology (FY97) and Atacama Field Trial (FY97) programs.
4.1	Meteorite detection technologies
To detect metal bearing meteorites (this includes most stony meteorites), meteorobots will use a suite consisting of a variety of sensing technologies. In a compact, mobile package of sensors and onboard computing, a robot could acquire a complete field of data and process gradient, total field, or magnetic tensor data.
This program will first evaluate the feasibility of existing sensors, and select those with the greatest potential of detecting meteorites based on rigorous testing with meteorite samples. The program will integrate the selected sensors and develop the software for acquiring and analyzing data. 
4.1.1	Vision
On the blue ice fields, surface rocks or meteorites are visually distinctive. A color vision system will scan the visible area around the vehicle for such objects. Upon location of an object the onboard computer will decide if it warrants further investigation based on its color, visible features and statistical data from previously encountered objects in the vicinity. This may mean a high resolution image of the object taken with a telescopic lens on a pan-tilt platform.
4.1.2	Magnetic Anomaly Detection (MAD)
To detect meteorites of high iron content, a magnetometer would be the most suitable sensor. Magnetic sensing measures disturbances of the earth’s magnetic field using such sensors 	as flux-gate or proton precession. 	A consideration for using a magnetometer in the polar region is the steep incidence 	angle of the Earth’s magnetic flux lines; the standard solution is to use a triaxial sensor to sense 	the total magnetic field vector rather than a planar sensor that uses only one coil. Augmenting this technique, the robot could use an array with sensors at different heights and spacing to sense gradients and nullify background fields.
4.1.3	Metal detection
High sensitivity metal detector search coils in front of the vehicle will confirm or deny the presence of metal fragments in the objects. Should this be so, the object is probably a meteorite. Even most stony meteorites contain millimeter sized iron grains that can picked up by sensitive detectors. 
Additionally, an array of metal detector search coils in front of the vehicle can detect metal bearing objects obscured by snow. An extra layer of security is provided against inadvertently running over an otherwise unnoticed meteorite.
4.2	Meteorite confirmation technologies
Having down-selected the possible meteorites, the robot will closely examine each candidate and use its sensors to provide more reliable estimates of their composition. Humans rely primarily on visual classification of surface meteorites. Researchers are trained to recognize meteorites by example: by reviewing samples of meteorite and non-meteorite rocks, they fine-tune visual skills for on-site identification of meteorites. 
4.2.1	Learning-based classification
Robots could be trained to have similar capabilities by examining color imagery of meteorite and native Antarctic rocks using neural nets and other machine learning and classification techniques. Color, texture, and shape would serve as important visible features. Since meteorites are often recognized as being somehow “different” from local rocks, some training could be done “live” on site. Several of the needed vision techniques already exist and have been used in planetary exploration programs. 
4.2.2	Reflection spectroscopy
Reflection spectroscopy using either solar or artificial illumination, can roughly characterize the surface minerals on the sample (this technique has been successfully applied to asteroids). Furthermore, this can be done from a distance, requiring only line-of-sight to the sample.
For instance, a UV Resonance Raman spectrometer could be deployed. This device can rapidly characterize the sample mineralogy, and is even sensitive to isotopic anomalies that may indicate an extraterrestrial origin, as was found with the recently publicized Martian meteorites. Precision sensor placement in rugged terrain is critical, since the instrument probe tip must be precisely placed over the sample.
4.3	Robotic search technologies
Robotic search for meteorites would be a natural evolution of current robotic capabilities. Drawing on patterning techniques employed now by many mobile robots, such as the NASA robotic harvester Demeter, a meteorobot could detect surface meteorites using the detected boundary of the search area to plan and execute a back-and-forth search pattern. The width of the search strip would be a function of the field-of-view of the sensors: for visual sensing, the meteorobot could cut a wide swath by using several cameras and / or a pan-and-tilt mechanism to point the camera(s). A small overlap between strips would ensure complete coverage and allow quilting of visual imagery to form highly detailed maps.
A key problem is to coordinate the motions of multiple robots searching a given area. We will develop algorithms for planning and executing formation motion. We will pay particular attention to the issue of error recovery, for example, regaining the formation after a disruption. 
5.					Advances over the state-of-art
This program will advance the state-of-the-art in search for meteorites by:
•	Developing and demonstrating the first integrated unit of sensors for detection of meteorites.
•	Developing and demonstrating the first integrated unit of sensors for confirmation of meteorites.
•	Delivering algorithms for autonomous patterned search for meteorites.
It will also advance the state-of-the-art by enabling the AMSFD program to:
•	Demonstrate robotic search, detection, and confirmation of meteorites.
•	Expand human search for submerged meteorites or meteorites deposited in areas not covered by human search. 
•	Dramatically simplify the tedious task of localizing meteorites.
•	Accelerate the meteorite characterization process with in-situ confirmation of samples.
•	Enable transcontinental participation of scientists through teleprescence interfaces.
•	Increase the rate of search coverage for Antarctic meteorites. Meteorobots will operate on 24-hour cycles in adverse conditions to achieve thorough coverage of scientifically interesting regions.
•	Demonstrate robust robot technologies, such as robotic mobility, robot control over a direct satellite link, and others, for prolonged unattended operations in the harshest environment on Earth. 
6.	Schedule and milestones
Beginning in FY97, a collaborative initiative of Earth scientists and robotic scientists will produce robots to search key areas of the Antarctic continent over four seasons, each with escalating difficulty, duration, and aspiration.
The key activities of the program are the following:
FY97
•	Research sensors for detection of meteorites
•	Research sensors for confirmation of meteorites
•	Assemble and validate sensor suite
•	Demonstrate vision-based navigation and localization of artifacts during the Atacama field trial (Jun97-Aug97)
FY98
•	Harden sensor suite for detection of meteorites
•	Develop a software system for processing, fusing, and interpreting data from multiple meteorite sensors
•	Research planning algorithms for autonomous patterned search for meteorites 
•	Develop technologies for learning-based classification of surface meteorites
•	Demonstrate vision-based navigation and search for meteorites in Antarctica (Nov97-Jan98)
FY99
•	Harden sensor suite for meteorite confirmation
•	Develop interface that will allow scientists to oversee search operations and annotate data downlinked from the meteorobots
•	Develop technologies to integrate surface perception with task-autonomous search techniques and confirmation sensors
•	Demonstrate supervised search, detection, and confirmation of meteorites in a 10 sq km traverse of a blue ice field in Antarctica (Nov98-Jan99)
FY00
•	Refine scientist interface
•	Demonstrate autonomous search, detection, and confirmation of meteorites in a 50 sq km traverse in Antarctica (Nov00-Jan01)
7.	Deliverables
The main deliverable for the FY98 is component technologies packaged as subsystems to enable the search for Antarctic meteorites demonstration. More specifically, the technology program will deliver:
•	Hardened unit of sensors for meteorite detection
•	Integrated subsystem (image acquisition/electronics/software) for learning based classification of meteorites
•	Algorithms for strategic search of an area designated by scientists
The program deliverables, are:
•	Meteorite finds from ice fields not explored by humans 
•	Meteorite finds not visible to humans, i.e. meteorites covered by a thin layer of snow or in shallow submergence <10 cm into blue ice
•	Two robots for autonomous search of Antarctic meteorites
•	Capability for remote search of Antarctic meteorites with science participation through user interfaces
8.	Dual-use potential
Dual-use potential of robotic search for Antarctic meteorites includes:
•	Utilization of the meteorite detection technologies in mine detection and localization. We anticipate a strong collaboration between the Meteorite Search and the De-mining projects at Carnegie Mellon.
•	Transfer of the meteorobot locomotion, power, and communication technologies to DARPA’s Small Unit Operations (SUO) UGV program.
•	The “strategic” planning has numerous civilian (e.g. search for fossils, and pre-historic artifacts) as well as military applications (e.g. localization of buried ammunition).
9.	Participants, partnerships, and facilities
9.1	Participants
•	Field Robotics Center, The Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University.
•	Mars Exploration Program.
•	NSF ANSMET Program and Case Western Reserve University, Dr. Ralph Harvey, team leader of ANSMET S058.
•	University of Pittsburgh, Dr. William Cassidy, foremost expert on Antarctic meteorites, 15 seasons in Antarctica, leader of the team that discovered ALH84001. 
9.2	Partnerships
For this program to be successful we anticipate several critical partnerships with government, commercial, and educational organizations.
•	Meteorite Curation Laboratory, Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX: Center for classification, storage, and curation of meteorites. 
•	Defense Research Establishment (DRES), Canada: Meteorite detection/confirmation technologies, testing, and proving grounds.
•	De-mining Program of the Multi-interdisciplinary University Research Institute; University of Kansas, University of Missouri, University of Texas (Arlington), Carnegie Mellon University: meteorite detection/confirmation technologies.
•	Jet Propulsion Laboratory: Meteorite detection/confirmation technologies.
•	NASA Ames Research Center: Scientist user interface, meteorite confirmation technologies, and vision-based navigation.
•	NASA Goddard Space Flight Center: Transantarctic communications using TDRSS and PORTCOM transceivers.
•	Potential commercial partners: Foerster, Inc. (meteorite detection/confirmation), Trimble (D-GPS), and Redzone Robotics, Inc. (meteorobot integration and testing, planning and logistics for the Antarctic demonstrations).
9.3	Facilities
The Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University is uniquely qualified to perform the proposed research, due to its extensive experience in creating and operating scores of field robots, its experience in Antarctic operations with the Dante I robot at Mount Erebus, and its decade of planetary rover research for NASA.
The Robotics Institute was established in 1979 as the nation’s first comprehensive robotics research center to conduct research in robotic technologies relevant to scientific, industrial, and governmental needs. The Institute has grown into a powerful, interdisciplinary research organization, which draws upon Carnegie Mellon’s strengths in computer science, engineering, science, and industrial administration.
The Institute has a staff of over 250 personnel, over 50 graduate students enrolled in affiliated programs, and 70 graduate students enrolled in the Robotics Ph.D. program. The Institute is organized into thirteen dedicated research laboratories and three program centers, which cover the spectrum of robotic research initiatives and encompass a wealth of robotic expertise. The Institute’s depth, breadth, and record of accomplishments is well established. The Institute pursues a comprehensive research agenda that culminates in competent, working robots.

10.	Budget
The budget for FY98 consists of: 
Item	Cost	
Personnel	300,000	
Travel
(not including field demo)	20,000	
Operating expenses	40,000	
Equipment	80,000	
Overhead	160,000	
		
Total	600,000	
11.	Closure
CMU TRIWG programs are building complementary technologies that stand on their own merit, and also synergize to produce a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. The Meteorite Search Technology program provides the basis for perception and automatic search and exploration strategies. The Meteorite Search Demonstration program allows for these technologies to be fielded and hardened for flight scenarios. The Unified Lander-Rover is a spacecraft paradigm that could deliver a higher fraction of scientific payload to planetary surfaces while still permitting the mobility required for exploration. Finally, Operational Autonomy promises the ability for such rovers to autonomously perform ambitious high-return missions when teleoperation is infeasible due to task complexity and communications limitations. But CMU goes beyond creation and promulgation of knowledge, using the REC to carry development to a commercial standard by productizing and hardening NASA technologies for industry.