The proposed innovation is mobile-camera-space manipulation (MCSM), a strategy to control robot systems with a combination of holonomic and nonholonomic degrees of freedom (DOFs), such as a rover equipped with a low-DOF arm. MCSM will control both the rover and the arm to move the end effector to a target in 3D space. MSCM will be an extension of camera-space manipulation (CSM), a proven estimation-based control strategy which controls tasks in physical space by achieving task objectives in camera-space. CSM's advantages include being calibration-free, robust, and highly accurate, but CSM requires cameras at fixed positions, limiting its use for mobile systems with large working areas. MCSM will control the rover and the onboard low-DOF robotic arm, using cameras fixed to the rover, to accomplish higher DOF tasks than either could achieve individually. MCSM could function in autonomous or supervised control modes without performance degradation due to delay times. The innovation responds to Subsection 18.02, giving rovers more flexibility, robustness, and accuracy for Sampling, Deployment, and Retrieval tasks by allowing rovers with low-DOF arms to achieve high-DOF tasks such as sample grasping, coring, deployment, storage, and retrieval of stored samples.
