Human space exploration typically requires considerable teamwork involving multiple disciplines in science and engineering. Effective and efficient field systems and information flow with the support teams are paramount for mission success. Moreover, human-robotic teams will be crucial in future Mars and Moon scenarios to allow humans to extend their capabilities to previously unreachable or unsafe regions through teleoperation.

In this presentation we describe the MEROP teleoperation system deployed in the AMADEE-24 mission. The system aimed to provide astronauts inside the habitat a teleoperation console for reliable robot operation with semi-autonomous operations and integrated briefing and debriefing tools. In particular, the MEROP visual interface included the following features: (1) visually augmented mission goals (regions of interest, ROIs, and safe paths) provided by the Mission Support Center (MSC) before each task, (2) live geo-referenced annotations and automated output for the MSC (3) situational awareness displays and widgets, and (4) direct and semi-autonomous robot control methods.

During the mission, 5 astronauts, inside the habitat, performed an exploration task with the MEROP system: (1) integrate and visualise the GIS briefing data (sent overnight by the MSC team) during the remote exploration task with the MEROP system, (2) operate the Mercator rover to the ROIs, and (3) identified and record Points of Interest (POIs) for debriefing purposes during the exploration task. Furthermore, during this presentation, the team will share insights regarding the identified field challenges and shortcomings of the MEROP system, taken into consideration in the system iterations following the AMADEE-24 mission.

Scientific Output:

Published Paper:

• Remote Operations and Streamlining Communication in Mars Analog Missions: Robot-Agnostic Augmented Interface for Live Annotations During Teleoperated Exploration Tasks
  • Rute Luz, Gonçalo Coelho, Mariana Campos, Rui Abrantes, Ricardo Querido, Margarida Pereira, Inês Sousa, Jéssica Corujeira, José Luís Silva, Rodrigo Ventura
  • https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/10688246/

Delivered MSC Thesis:

• Human-Supervised Autonomous Navigation of Planetary Rovers in Rough Terrain – Rui Abrantes
• Augmented Reality for information fusion in teleoperation of mobile robots – Gonçalo Coelho

In Preparation:

• Submission to Journal of Intelligent & Robotic Systems
  • Collaboration with the SAMPLE team
• PhD thesis: Enhanced Planetary Exploration Through Multimodal Teleoperation Interfaces Under Communication Latency – Rute Luz

Source: Rute Luz^1,2, Gonçalo Coelho¹, Mariana Campos^1,3, Rui Abrantes¹, Ricardo Querido¹, Margarid Pereira¹, Inês Sousa¹, Jéssica Corujeira^1,3, José Luís Silva^3,4, Rodrigo Ventura¹, “MEROP”, AMADEE-24 Science Workshop Booklet 2024

¹ Institute for System and Robotics, Instituto Superior Técnico de Lisboa, Portugal
² Human-Robot Interaction Laboratory, ESA-ESTEC, the Netherlands
³ Interactive Technologies Institute (ITI), Portugal
⁴ Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), Portugal