Fiber Optic Shape Sensing for Tethered Marsupial Rovers

Luna Innovations Incorporated is proposing to design, build, and test a shape, length, and tension sensing tether for robotic exploration and sample-gathering missions on remote planets and moons. The proposed tether system is capable of determining the location and orientation of marsupial robots as they navigate difficult terrain. The tether system will also provide shape and tension information along the entire tether, distinguishing elevation changes, tension due to snags, and potential points of harm. The tension feedback is particularly crucial, as it can be used to determine whether the rover has fallen down a slope or cliff, lost traction, or whether it is still moving under its own power. The system is based on Luna's unique fiber optic position and shape sensing technology, and is an enabling technology for obtaining images, data, and samples in areas with difficult terrain. In addition to providing new, vital feedback, the fiber optic shape sensor within the tether is lightweight, small, and flexible. Luna's unique shape sensing fiber also has the potential to provide both communication and power through the same fiber, further reducing the size and weight of the total tether package.

NASA's Mars rovers have exceeded all goals and expectations, but they are still limited in the types of terrain that they can cover. Small, rugged marsupial robots with self-localizing and tension-monitoring tethers have the potential to reach critical sampling sites, explore steep craters, and navigate up and down sheer cliff faces on Mars, the Moon, asteroids, and other large bodies within our solar system. Self-localizing tethers also enable higher levels of precision for precursor-mission construction and manipulation robots sent to build infrastructure for later human missions to Mars, the Moon, and beyond.

Robots used for urban search and rescue have a significant challenge with localization since typical means such as GPS are not available inside a collapsed structure, and rubble and difficult terrain can snag tethers without the robot's knowledge. Deep diving underwater exploration vehicles both manned and unmanned could make use of a light weight tether system that can supply communication and localization information. The integrated tether sensing system can provide these systems with accurate localization information as well as power and high bandwidth communications.

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