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76 S pace systems are one area where you might expect to see a lot of autonomy designed in, but paradoxically the implementation is limited. Part of this comes down to the maturity of the technology. Self-driving vehicles have only become viable in the past few years, and space systems can take decades to build before they are finally launched. There is also an energy issue, with a limited amount available for running microprocessors, driving a vehicle’s wheels, running experiments and keeping the system warm enough to work. More processing power for complex algorithms takes additional energy, and the complexity increases the risk of something going wrong that cannot be fixed from Earth. Ontario Drive and Gears (ODG) in Canada has been addressing this complexity while developing a Moon rover. The company is a subsidiary of Argo, which has been building rugged amphibious vehicles for the past 50 years. As a result, ODG has been developing technologies for space rovers that could make them simpler and more cost-effective, while at the same time helping to make them more autonomous. “We have always felt that if we design an ultra-rugged, very capable machine then it reduces the requirements of the autonomy – if for example we can ignore rocks that are 10 in tall then it’s easier for the autonomous system,” says Peter Visscher, ODG’s chief technology officer. “If a system has to identify 4 in high rocks then there’s too much going on. That’s easy to do in the lab but not so easy in the real world.” In 2007 the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) started some projects to find a new niche for its work. Its speciality is space robotics, producing robotic arms that are used on the International Rover missions to Mars and the Moon create particular problems for vehicle autonomy. Nick Flaherty reports on how the industry is finding solutions Summer 2015 | Unmanned Systems Technology Going it alone