Optimizing Resource Utilization in Planetary Rovers

Shlomo Zilberstein and Abdel-Illah Mouaddib. Optimizing Resource Utilization in Planetary Rovers. Proceedings of the Second NASA International Workshop on Planning and Scheduling for Space, 163-168, San Francisco, California, 2000.

Abstract

Autonomous planetary rovers must operate under tight constraints over such resources as operation time, power, storage capacity, and communication bandwidth. To maximize scientific return, the rover is given multiple methods in which to accomplish each step of a plan. The different alternatives offer a tradeoff between resource consumption and the quality of the outcome. We show how to choose the best way to execute a task based on the availability of resources, the progress made with the task so far, and the remaining workload. Each task is controlled by a precompiled policy that factors the effect of the remaining plan using the notion of an opportunity cost.

Bibtex entry:

@inproceedings{ZMnasa00,
  author	= {Shlomo Zilberstein and Abdel-Illah Mouaddib},
  title		= {Optimizing Resource Utilization in Planetary Rovers},
  booktitle     = {Proceedings of the Second {NASA} International Workshop on
                   Planning and Scheduling for Space},
  year		= {2000},
  pages		= {163-168},
  address       = {San Francisco, California},
  url		= {http://rbr.cs.umass.edu/shlomo/papers/ZMnasa00.html}
}

shlomo@cs.umass.edu