Two Years of Autonomous Targeting Onboard the Mer Opportunity Rover

The Autonomous Exploration for Gathering Increased Science (AEGIS) system provides automated, sciencedrive data collection for planetary rovers. AEGIS is currently being used onboard the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission’s Opportunity rover to provide autonomous targeting of the MER Panoramic camera. Prior to AEGIS, targets were typically manually identified in images transmitted to Earth and the rover had to remain in the same location for one to several communication cycles in order to acquire new data. AEGIS analyses new images to detect pre-defined science features of interest, enabling targeted data to be acquired immediately with no delays for ground communication. Targets are selected by AEGIS through the use of onboard data analysis techniques guided by scientist-specified objectives. This paper provides an overview of how AEGIS has been used on the Opportunity rover during its 21 kilometer trek to the Mars Endeavour crater.