A Strategical Path Planner for UGV-UAV Cooperation in Mars Terrains

Mars exploration is an ongoing researching topic mainly due to the technological breakthroughs in robotic platforms. Space agencies as NASA, are considering future Mars explorations where multi-robot teams cooperate to maximize the scientific return. In this regard, we present a cooperative team formed by a Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) and a Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV) to autonomously perform a Mars exploration. We develop a strategical path planner to compute a route plan for the UGV-UAV team to reach all the target points of the exploration. The key problems that we have considered in Mars explorations for the UGV-UAV team are: the UAV energy constraints and the UGV functionality constraints. Our strategical path planner models the UGV as a moving charging station which will carry the UAV through secure locations close to the target points locations, and the UAV will visit the target points using the UGV as a recharging station. Our solution has been tested in several scenarios and the results demonstrate that our approach is able to carry out a coordinated plan in a local optimal mission time on a real Mars terrain.