Computers and other smart devices that we use in our daily lives need an update of their operating system or programs from time to time. This is also useful for robots located outside of Earth.
After years of preparation, a major software update that has been installed on NASA’s Curiosity will allow this robotic rover to move faster on Martian soil and reduce wear on its wheels. These are just two of the 180 changes implemented during the update, which forced the team to halt Curiosity’s science activities for several days.
Some of the changes in this software update are as small as making corrections to the messages the robot sends to those responsible for mission control on Earth. Others simplify computer code that has been modified by multiple patches since Curiosity landed on Mars in 2012.
Now, thanks to the new software update, Curiosity will be better able to do what the team calls “think while driving,” a skill that Perseverance, NASA’s newest robotic rover on Mars, It can be done in a more advanced way to decide course changes on the fly, such as around a rock too big to drive over, or a dune where the rover could get stuck in sand.
As the Perseverance moves, it constantly takes photographs of the terrain and processes them with a specific computer so that it can navigate autonomously during a continuous journey, without having to stop, think about its next moves and resume its march.
Curiosity does not have a dedicated computer for this purpose. This forces you to drive in sections, stopping to process images of the terrain after each section. This means that you have to start and stop repeatedly over the course of a long drive. The new software will help the old robot process images faster, allowing it to spend more time on the move.
A piece of land in the area through which Curiosity has been advancing lately. (Photo: NASA JPL/Caltech/MSSS)
The team also wants to keep Curiosity’s aluminum wheels, which began to show signs of wear in 2013, in the best possible condition. When engineers realized that sharp rocks were wearing down the rover’s wheels too much, they devised an algorithm to Improve traction and reduce tire wear by adjusting the rover’s speed based on the rocks it’s rolling over.
