System for Uncertainty, Risk, and Feature Assessment of Surfaces (SURFAS) Holistic Scene Analysis
Description
SURFAS, given the above combination of inputs for a particular vehicle, is informed by expertise of mission designers to fuse relevant data together in order to create a holistic map of the scene, combining all information that the agent can perceive about that scene; e.g. the hyperspectral imager may autonomously tag identify an area of geological interest to the mission, Using data from a LiDAR scan, the robot can plan a path to reach the area. That path can be modified to avoid a patch of soil that the ground penetrating radar identifies as soft and loose (and so should be avoided by the robot). SURFAS intends to provide an architecture for uniting these telemetry streams into a single scene map that is made available to onboard planners to account for both risk AND reward in planning.
Detailed example
Map “layers” of the scene by individual features (e.g. a layer containing only LiDAR and one containing only GPR), as well as a fused map, where each individual layer measurement is translated to a measure of mission risk versus reward, and combined with measurements from other layers. The final data product is analogous to a costmap used in terrestrial robotic planning, but encompassing all available aspects of the scene.
AI / analytics pattern
Agentic AI: AI systems that perform tasks or make decisions autonomously with minimal human intervention.
Automation level / stage
a) Pre-deployment – The use case is in a development or acquisition status.
Expected benefit
SURFAS intends to provide an architecture for unifying onboard systems that are often siloed with limited data sharing. Particularly, science instruments can provide relevant traversal information, especially in novel environments encountered on planetary surfaces. We want to avoid leaving data on the table and instead use all available telemetry to inform the motion and mission planning for next-generation robotic explorers.
Controls / human review
ATO: Not reported; PIA: Not published