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Planetary Rovers

Robotic Exploration of the Solar System

  • Book
  • © 2016

Overview

Authors:
  1. Alex Ellery

    1. Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada

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  • Discusses relevant planetary environments to rover missions, stressing the Moon and Mars
  • Includes a brief survey of previous rover missions
  • Comprehensively covers autonomous navigation, path planning and multi-rover formations on other planets
  • Presents a special case study on the exploration of Europa
  • Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Part of the book series: Springer Praxis Books (PRAXIS)

Part of the book sub series: Astronautical Engineering (ASTROENG)

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Table of contents (14 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xxix
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  2. Introduction

    • Alex Ellery
    Pages 1-35

  3. Planetary environments

    • Alex Ellery
    Pages 37-57

  4. Survey of past rover missions

    • Alex Ellery
    Pages 59-69

  5. Rover Mobility and Locomotion

    • Alex Ellery
    Pages 71-132

  6. Rover sensorimotor control systems

    • Alex Ellery
    Pages 133-197

  7. Rover vision—fundamentals

    • Alex Ellery
    Pages 199-262

  8. Rover vision—advanced capabilities

    • Alex Ellery
    Pages 263-300

  9. Autonomous navigation—behaviors and architectures

    • Alex Ellery
    Pages 301-329

  10. Autonomous Navigation—Self-localization and Mapping (SLAM)

    • Alex Ellery
    Pages 331-374

  11. Rover path planning

    • Alex Ellery
    Pages 375-418

  12. Robotic sample acquisition

    • Alex Ellery
    Pages 419-470

  13. Onboard autonomous science

    • Alex Ellery
    Pages 471-512

  14. Case study: Robotic exploration of Europa

    • Alex Ellery
    Pages 513-539

  15. Future rover concepts

    • Alex Ellery
    Pages 541-561

  16. Back Matter

    Pages 563-702
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Keywords

About this book

The increasing adoption of terrain mobility – planetary rovers – for the investigation of planetary surfaces emphasises their central importance in space exploration. This imposes a completely new set of technologies and methodologies to the design of such spacecraft – and planetary rovers are indeed, first  and foremost, spacecraft. This introduces vehicle engineering, mechatronics, robotics, artificial  intelligence and associated technologies to the spacecraft engineer’s repertoire of skills. Planetary Rovers is the only book that comprehensively covers these aspects of planetary rover engineering and more. The book:

• discusses relevant planetary environments to rover missions, stressing the Moon and Mars;

• includes a brief survey of previous rover missions;

• covers rover mobility, traction and control systems;

• stresses the importance of robotic vision in rovers for both navigation and science;

• comprehensively covers autonomous navigation, path planning and multi-rover formations on other planets;

• introduces sample acquisition and autonomous science – with an emphasis on astrobiology – as the raison d’être of rover missions;

• presents a special case study on the exploration of Europa;

• discusses future rover concepts, including a brief exploration of the role of biomimetics.                                  

Reviews

“It aims to be a complete overview of the design, implementation and control of planetary rovers, ranging widely from details of past rovers, through overviews of algorithm research into the process of bidding and managing projects for the European Space Agency (ESA). … it targets a wide audience from final year undergraduates to industry engineers involved with rover development – anyone involved in rover design. … I would recommend this book to anyone working or interested in the field … .” (Dr. Iain Wallace, The Aeronautical Journal, January, 2017)

                                                  

Authors and Affiliations

  • Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada

    Alex Ellery

About the author

Professor Alex Ellery is a Canada Research Chair in Space Robotics & Space Technology in the Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Department at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada. He holds a BSc (Hons) in Physics, MSc in Astronomy and PhD in Astronautics & Space Engineering. He is also an alumnus of the International Space University. He is a Chartered Engineer and holds Fellowships at the Institution of Engineering & Technology, Institution of Mechanical Engineers, and the Royal Aeronautical Society. He was formerly at the Surrey Space Centre at the University of Surrey where he was awarded the George Stephenson medal by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (2005). He was formerly Chair of the Astrobiology Society of Britain (2005/2006).                          

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Planetary Rovers

  • Book Subtitle: Robotic Exploration of the Solar System

  • Authors: Alex Ellery

  • Series Title: Springer Praxis Books

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-03259-2

  • Publisher: Springer Berlin, Heidelberg

  • eBook Packages: Engineering, Engineering (R0)

  • Copyright Information: Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2016

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-642-03258-5Published: 19 January 2016

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-662-56845-3Published: 30 March 2018

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-642-03259-2Published: 30 December 2015

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XXIX, 702

  • Number of Illustrations: 36 b/w illustrations, 119 illustrations in colour

  • Topics: Aerospace Technology and Astronautics, Automotive Engineering

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