Cooperative Autonomous Distributed Robotic Exploration

The Cooperative Autonomous Distributed Robotic Exploration (CADRE) project is developing a network of shoebox-size rovers that can work together to explore planetary surfaces as a team. Because of their ability to support each other, they would be largely autonomous, making decisions and acting without the requirement of constant human intervention. This would enable them to be responsive to challenging exploration objectives, potentially exploring hard-to-access and risky areas, such as inside craters and caves. It would also enable them to achieve the accuracy required to be used as a distributed instrument – when data is collected by each individual rover and then combined to fulfil a common objective.

Developed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, each tiny four-wheeled robot is equipped with two stereo cameras and other sensors to map terrain in 3D and sense other rovers in the surrounding environment. When deployed on the surface of the Moon or Mars, a group of these independent robots would coordinate with one another via radio to efficiently explore nearby terrain or make distributed measurements together.

CADRE is a follow-on project from JPL’s Autonomous Pop-Up Flat Folding Explorer Robot (A-PUFFER) project, which developed the multi-agent autonomy for a team of tiny two-wheeled foldable rovers that could explore hard-to-reach nooks on planetary surfaces. The CADRE technology demonstration will focus on validating that this autonomous multi-agent system is capable of cooperative exploration that could enable new science for future missions.