This research in long-range autonomous rover navigation seeks to
enable efficient path planning and reliable navigation for
single-command, one-kilometer autonomous rover traverse. It
builds upon our previous work in global path planning The
scientific data return on Mars rover exploration missions is
fundamentally limited by the operational overhead associated
with energy collection, power management, communications and
travel between interesting sites. Time efficiency can be
achieved through a combination of detailed planning at low
frequency on Earth and fast response replanning on the rover,
thereby enabling intelligent decisions at a far greater
bandwidth than possible under direct human Using our solar-
powered rover Hyperion, we have demonstrated preliminary results
in long-range autonomous navigation with traverses of 300-600
meters in a single command using 30-meter resolution digital
elevation models and odometric position estimation (meaning
without GPS). We have achieved one instance of single-comm