Spatio-temporal path planning for lunar polar exploration with robustness against schedule delay

This paper presents a method to obtain a robust optimal path in an environment with time-varying safety features, such as in the lunar polar region. In designing the path for planetary exploration rovers, we must consider various safety conditions, such as terrain hazards, illumination, and communication visibility to the Earth. Some of the safety features are time-varying, and the optimal path should be searched for both the spatial direction and the temporal direction. In addition, there is no guarantee that all of the sequences will be successfully executed on time due to misoperation, failures, or trouble. Therefore, a path that is robust against the delay must be planned so as to guarantee safety even when behind schedule. The authors propose an algorithm called “Robust Spatio-Temporal Path Planner for the Planetary Rover (ROBUST-STP3R)” to obtain a path that is robust against schedule delay in a time-varying environment. This method defines a cost function that consists of the distance as well as the region type cost. To add robustness against schedule delays, the authors consider a weighted summation of the time-varying region type cost with regard to the temporal direction. The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated through use in a simulated lunar polar exploration exercise.