This research area provides several possible benefits to NASA's Science Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) Game Changing Development (GCD) Human Robotic System (HRS) projects such as Regolith Advanced Surface Systems Operations Robot (RASSOR) 2 which is under development at KSC's Swamp Works. Off-planet applications of such a system include water-ice detection and mining, terrain mapping and habitat construction in advance of human explorers. The confirmation of the viable concept of operations along with the proof of concepts for autonomous navigation, path planning, and power management could improve performance and reliability of in-situ robotic mining agents such as RASSOR2. The development environment, including the simulation verification environment, along with the low cost robotic platforms reduce the cost of design and development of software for these types of applications. This research provides potential benefit to any unfunded & planned NASA missions such as OxMiner or an Asteroid Retrieval Mission engaged in in-situ resource mining. Off-planet applications of such a system include water-ice detection and mining, terrain mapping and habitat construction in advance of human explorers. The confirmation of the viable concept of operations along with the proof of concepts for the autonomous navigation, path planning, and power management improves performance and reliability of in-situ robotic mining agents.The development environment, including the simulation verification environment, along with the low cost robotic platforms reduce the cost of design and development of software for these types of applications. This research provides potential benefit to the commercial space industry commercial asteroid mining ventures which are proposed by Planetary Resources, Inc., Deep Space Industries, Inc. Moon Express, Astrobotics, or any entity engaged in in-situ resource location and operations. Off-planet applications of such a system include water-ice detection and mining, terrain mapping and habitat construction in advance of human explorers. The confirmation of the viable concept of operations along with the proof of concepts for the autonomous navigation, path planning, and power management improves performance and reliability of in-situ robotic operations. The development environment, including the simulation verification environment, along with the low cost robotic platforms reduce the cost of design and development of software for these types of applications. This research provides potential benefit to other government agencies such as the Department of Defense (DOD) or Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) engaged in in-situ resource location and operations. Terrestrial applications include search-and-rescue, hazardous waste cleanup, land mine removal and infrastructure inspection and repair. The approach used in the software could also be adapted to search the Internet or to search large unknown data sets. The confirmation of the viable concept of operations along with the proof of concepts for the autonomous navigation, path planning, and power management improves performance and reliability of in-situ robotic operations. The development environment, including the simulation verification environment, along with the low cost robotic platforms reduce the cost of design and development of software for these types of applications.
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