NASA's Mars rover plans its own day, and researchers say it is getting more done
Perseverance's onboard scheduler reshuffles its tasks more than 15 times a day, without the kind of AI behind chatbots.
NASA's Perseverance rover on Mars has been planning much of its own day since October 2023, three researchers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, or JPL, in Pasadena wrote Oct. 29. Steve Chien, Raymond Francis and Dan Gaines described the On Board Planner in Eos, a science magazine of the American Geophysical Union.
Engineers on Earth still send a list of goals. The planner decides when to do each task as conditions change, reworking the schedule more than 15 times per Martian day on average, the authors wrote.
They said it has increased the rover's available energy by more than 10%. Better timing for warming up instruments makes one spectrometer, a tool that identifies minerals, produce cleaner readings, and time saved when tasks finish early becomes extra driving.
The planner does not use the kind of AI behind chatbots. The authors call it "old school" software that follows rules and searches for workable schedules, and it can explain its choices.