Novelty-Driven Onboard Targeting for MSL and Mars 2020 Rovers, Year 2

Completed TRL 5 (started at 4, targeting 5)

Description

First development of novelty-based targeting for use onboard rovers/spacecraft; Will use unsupervised methods detect anomalies or novel phenomena; Key challenges include identifying the appropriate representation of image content to highlight novelty, specifying an analytic measure of novelty within context (normal is a relative term) which limits false alarms, and ensuring that the algorithm can run in a rover onboard computing context.

Benefits

MSL ChemCam automated targeting (AEGIS) ranks targets against pre-defined science criteria; Good for finding items of known interest, but could miss the unexpected. Missions are under pressure to reduce planning timelines; novelty detection can quickly highlight targets that merit further attention, i.e. help focus attention. Novelty-based targeting can accelerate the speed of new discoveries; Previous novelty detection studies focused on offline, prototype settings with low-resolution images.

Details

Technology area	Robotic Systems > Sensing and Perception
Program	Center Innovation Fund: JPL CIF (JPL CIF)
Lead organization	Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA
Start date	2020-10-01
End date	2021-09-30

Project contacts

Listed on TechPort itself — the most direct way to ask about this specific project.

Kiri L Wagstaff — kiri.l.wagstaff@jpl.nasa.gov

How to get involved

This is early/mid-stage (TRL 5) — the most realistic path in is NASA SBIR/STTR, which funds small businesses and research institutions to develop technology aligned with NASA's needs (equity-free, phased funding). Check whether a current SBIR/STTR solicitation topic overlaps with this project's technology area, or contact the project directly (above) to ask.

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