Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-cphqk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-11T06:45:24.490Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Cyborg Astrobiologist: first field experience

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 February 2005

Patrick Charles McGuire
Affiliation:
Robotics Laboratory, Centro de Astrobiología (CAB), Carretera de Torrejón a Ajalvir km 4.5, Torrejón de Ardoz, 28850 Madrid, Spain Transdisciplinary Laboratory, Centro de Astrobiología (CAB), Carretera de Torrejón a Ajalvir km 4.5, Torrejón de Ardoz, 28850 Madrid, Spain e-mail: mcguire@physik.uni-bielefeld.de
Jens Ormö
Affiliation:
Planetary Geology Laboratory, Centro de Astrobiología (CAB), Carretera de Torrejón a Ajalvir km 4.5, Torrejón de Ardoz, 28850 Madrid, Spain
Enrique Díaz Martínez
Affiliation:
Planetary Geology Laboratory, Centro de Astrobiología (CAB), Carretera de Torrejón a Ajalvir km 4.5, Torrejón de Ardoz, 28850 Madrid, Spain Dirección de Geología y Geofísica, Instituto Geológico y Minero de España, Calera 1, Tres Cantos, 28760 Madrid, Spain
José Antonio Rodríguez Manfredi
Affiliation:
Robotics Laboratory, Centro de Astrobiología (CAB), Carretera de Torrejón a Ajalvir km 4.5, Torrejón de Ardoz, 28850 Madrid, Spain
Javier Gómez Elvira
Affiliation:
Robotics Laboratory, Centro de Astrobiología (CAB), Carretera de Torrejón a Ajalvir km 4.5, Torrejón de Ardoz, 28850 Madrid, Spain
Helge Ritter
Affiliation:
Neuroinformatics Group, Computer Science Department, Technische Fakultät, University of Bielefeld, PO Box 10 01 31, 33501 Bielefeld, Germany
Markus Oesker
Affiliation:
Neuroinformatics Group, Computer Science Department, Technische Fakultät, University of Bielefeld, PO Box 10 01 31, 33501 Bielefeld, Germany
Jörg Ontrup
Affiliation:
Neuroinformatics Group, Computer Science Department, Technische Fakultät, University of Bielefeld, PO Box 10 01 31, 33501 Bielefeld, Germany
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

We present results from the first geological field tests of the ‘Cyborg Astrobiologist’, which is a wearable computer and video camcorder system that we are using to test and train a computer-vision system towards having some of the autonomous decision-making capabilities of a field-geologist and field-astrobiologist. The Cyborg Astrobiologist platform has thus far been used for testing and development of the following algorithms and systems: robotic acquisition of quasi-mosaics of images; real-time image segmentation; and real-time determination of interesting points in the image mosaics. The hardware and software systems function reliably, and the computer-vision algorithms are adequate for the first field tests. In addition to the proof-of-concept aspect of these field tests, the main result of these field tests is the enumeration of those issues that we can improve in the future, including: detection and accounting for shadows caused by three-dimensional jagged edges in the outcrop; reincorporation of more sophisticated texture-analysis algorithms into the system; creation of hardware and software capabilities to control the camera's zoom lens in an intelligent manner; and, finally, development of algorithms for interpretation of complex geological scenery. Nonetheless, despite these technical inadequacies, this Cyborg Astrobiologist system, consisting of a camera-equipped wearable-computer and its computer-vision algorithms, has demonstrated its ability in finding genuinely interesting points in real-time in the geological scenery, and then gathering more information about these interest points in an automated manner.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
2005 Cambridge University Press