THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE LOCOMOTION PERFORMANCE MODEL (LPM) FOR THE EXOMARS ROVER VEHICLE
Paul Meacham, Nuno A. Silva, Richard Lancaster · 2016
ExoMars is a European Space Agency mission to send an Orbiter and an Entry, Descent & Landing demonstrator to Mars in 2016, followed by a Rover in 2018. The mission goal is to establish if life has ever existed on the surface of Mars. Astrium Ltd are responsible for the Rover Vehicle, the elements of the Rover excluding payload. The development of the ExoMars Rover Vehicle requires a unique model philosophy to develop and qualify the mission requirements, which differs considerably from a ‘standard’ spacecraft. One of the key models in the development of the required autonomous driving capability is the Locomotion Performance Model (LPM). The LPM is a breadboard of Mars-representative weight that incorporates a suite of COTS sensors and actuators that are functionally equivalent to the sensors/actuators used on the flight Rover Vehicle for autonomous driving. This paper describes the role of the LPM in the context of the Rover Vehicle, its initial configuration and the subsequent modifications made to it, in order to meet the needs of the Mobility system. The sensor/actuator suite on the LPM and its relationship to the flight equivalent is explored. The LPM GNC Algorithms Cradle, a piece of software which allows proto-flight GNC algorithms to run on the LPM, is described in detail, including how it replicates the flight processing environment.