Field Experiments in Mission-Level Path Execution and Re-Planning

A new project called Life in the Atacama (LITA) motivates navigational autonomy over 100 kilometers and over days or weeks. LITA is chartered to develop technology to enable robotic astrobiology, while at the same time conducting useful research into the extremes of life on Earth. Two years from now, the team must demonstrate coordinated robotic science over several weeks. A key component is Mission-Level Path Planning, which plans routes that coordinate large-scale terrain avoidance, path timing, and battery energy management. Its goal is to yield plans that provide a framework not only for locomotion, but for other activities like solar charging and hibernation. In April 2003, we conducted the first of three field experiments in the Chilean desert. This paper documents our findings on this new level of robotic autonomy.