Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - ERGO (EUROPEAN ROBOTIC GOAL-ORIENTED AUTONOMOUS CONTROLLER)

Teaser

An autonomous software framework represents the type of system which is commonly known in the literature as a robotic architecture, the backbone of the autonomous robotic software around which the rest of the components are defined. For the scope of ERGO the definition of...

Summary

An autonomous software framework represents the type of system which is commonly known in the literature as a robotic architecture, the backbone of the autonomous robotic software around which the rest of the components are defined. For the scope of ERGO the definition of on-board autonomy is assumed as in the European ECSS Space Segment Operability Standard that identify four different autonomy levels depending on the way that the system is commanded. The ERGO system is an Autonomy Framework capable of operating at all these different levels of autonomy, from tele-operations (E1), by using time-tagged commands (E2), event-driven tables (E3) or full on-board autonomy (E4).
ERGO was developed following a set of objectives, described hereafter:
Objective 1 in ERGO is to provide an architecture able to be commanded via high-level objectives
Objective 2: Planning capabilities are provided by a planner, developed for this purpose.
Objective 3. Dynamic re-planning when it is required
Objective 4 Scheduling . ERGO is able to schedule the low level commands in real-time
Objective 5. Adjustable/selectable ECSS level of autonomy
Objective 6. Flexibility: The system can be easily tailored for planetary and orbital applications.
Objective 7. Applicability to terrestrial applications (not only space).
Objective 8. Suitable for flight. ERGO has been designed thinking on its suitability for on-board flight software
Objective 9. Use of on-board Resources: efficient use of all on-board resources
Objective 10. FDIR capabilities: assistance to the user to build FDIR components
Objective 11. On-board path-planners (i.e. rover and robotic arm motion). A Guidance component provides path planning, hazard avoidance and trajectory control. In addition, a robotic arm component performs motion planning and control of a robotic arm.
Objective 12. Opportunistic science. The combination of an on-board planner and a scientific detector allows to perform opportunistic science
Objective 13. Multi-robot collaboration. The ERGO architecture can be easily extended for collaborative scenarios.
Objective 14. OG’s Interfaces: easy integration with all the other OGs from the first call.
Objective 15. Easy internal view and debugging of the planning decisions.

Work performed

In ERGO not only the framework was built, but also two demonstrators. ERGO SW has been divided into four main SW packages (SW1 to SW4). Each of them contains a set of sub-packages, namely:
SW1 ERGO CORE framework
The Core Framework are components that are completely necessary to build a robotic platform with a higher level of autonomy. Here we find:
Agent: The generic robotic controller in which other components can be embedded
Ground Control interface: handing Telecommands and Telemetry, and also of services provided for different levels of autonomy.
Stellar Mission Planner: to decompose a set of high-level goals into low-level goals and generate a feasible plan.
FDIR: iFinder and FDIR tool to design and formally analyse FDIR subsystems.
TASTE extensions are also contained in a separate sub-package of SW1
SW2 ERGO SPECIFIC COMPONENTS framework
ERGO specific components framework is composed by a set of subcomponents with a specific functionality, namely:
Goal Oriented Data Analysis (GODA): in charge of detecting serendipitous events, autonomously posting new goals to the planner whenever an interesting event is raised.
Rover Guidance (RG): performing navigation map calculation, short and long-term path planning, resources estimation, hazard prevention and trajectory control.
Robotic Arm (RARM): the Robotic arm library, developed by GMV, is in charge of planning & execution of the movements of the robotic arm. It plans trajectories and paths between points without any collision.
SW3 ERGO PLANETARY DEMONSTRATOR framework instantiation
This package contains the TASTE software and the associated TASTE function’s code for the implementation of ERGO framework for this demonstrator
SW4 ERGO ORBITAL DEMONSTRATOR framework instantiation
This package encapsulates the TASTE software and the associated TASTE function’s code for the implementation of ERGO framework for the Orbital Exploration Demonstrator Software

Final results

The following technical impacts can be summarized for each component:
ERGO planner (Stellar) and Agent: The combination of the ERGO agent with the ERGO planner, Stellar, provides unique capabilities for handling E1 to E4 levels of commanding
The ERGO agent is able to dynamically generate plans to achieve these goals, deterministically dispatch the associated activities for its execution and is also able to recover from off-nominal conditions, performing re-planning when needed. Reactive and deliberative capabilities are handled in a harmonized fashion.
All Four different levels of commanding are possible, which is a break-through for future space missions
Guidance capabilities: Guidance algorithms in ERGO have allowed to drive autonomously the SherpaTT planetary rover for more than 1.3 km during 8.5 hours in a Martian-like scenario using algorithms suited by design for flight application.
FDIR techniques: FDIR components developed in ERGO aim to guarantee the safe functioning of a system with respect to desired timed RAMS properties and despite of the errors occurred. The ERGO approach has the following features: (i) it is generic enough to be applied on different types of systems with respect to safety requirements, (ii) it obtains correct-by-construction components due to the use of formal methods and (iii) its analysis steps can be automated.
Scientific detection: GODA, the ERGO scientific detector can be easily tailored to detect any serendipitous event from the identification of patterns in camera images. This capability, combined with the planning capabilities, allows to perform opportunistic science, a feature that is particularly important in future planetary exploration missions
Others features that can provide a high impact:
It provides an integrated solution that can be used either separately or in combination, and therefore future users will be able to choose those components required for their developments, not forcing the user to select all of them.
ERGO facilitates an integration of a system conceived from the beginning to be flight-certified. Components have been designed taking into consideration a number of rules that would simplify future efforts to increase its TRL.
Usage of a model-driven approach via TASTE that allows the abstraction of the user from the implementation details of the underlying platform and guaranteeing the fulfilment of real-time properties.
Furthermore, It is expected that the ERGO technology will also have impact on both economical and societal aspects, creating new market opportunities in Space robotics, strengthening the competitiveness of European Space Robotics in the field of autonomy, and to promote spin-offs for terrestrial applications that can take advantage of this technology

Website & more info

More info: https://www.h2020-ergo.eu/.