NASA Gives Mars Rover Extra Smarts

coondoggie writes "NASA today said it upgraded the software controlling its Mars Rover Opportunity to let it make its own decisions about what items like rocks and interesting red planet formations to focus its cameras on. The new system, which NASA uploaded over the past few months, is called Autonomous Exploration for Gathering Increased Science, or AEGIS and it lets Opportunity's computer examine images that the rover takes with its wide-angle navigation camera after a drive, and recognize rocks that meet specified criteria, such as rounded shape or light color. It can then center its narrower-angle panoramic camera on the chosen target and take multiple images through color filters, NASA stated."

What's This Line in the Release Notes About?

[eldavojohn]

Good upgrade but I really gotta question the added 'inferiority complex routine' listed in the release notes that requires the rover to periodically contemplate its ultimate fate [xkcd.com] and update a twitter feed where NASA engineers can either encourage the rover or ridicule it.

I for one

[c++0xFF]

...welcome our newly upgraded martian overlord.

Re:Technology behind this?

[NEDHead]

Geek Squad goes on site, does a full backup, and certifies successful update.

Re:One down, one still very good to go.

[beakerMeep]

Just wait, another year or two it will be asking to borrow the car.

Re:Technology behind this?

[Anonymous Coward]

Please tell me it's a one-way trip.

Re:AEGIS

[Jainith]

Autonomous Exploration for Gathering Increased Science

Clearly from the lameness of the title they chose the acronym first and then found a title to fit it. Why anyone would think its appropriate to use the acronym AEGIS for something that doesn't involve defense or a shield I dont know.

AEGIS

[PPH]

Another Excuse to Get Itself Stuck

I'm in acronym hell.

[sammy baby]

The new system, which NASA uploaded over the past few months, is called Autonomous Exploration for Gathering Increased Science, or AEGIS and...

Well, thank god it's gathering increased science. I would hate to think that we were collecting decreased science. Perhaps we could design a program and call it Autonomous System for Scientific and HOlistic Learning and Exploration.

Then again, we could have called it Rover OS 2.0.

2020

[sohp]

Newsflash: A mysterious intelligent probe calling itself "O'nity" is threatening Earth. Scientists say that it is demanding access to "interesting rocks and formations"

Re:Technology behind this?

[Anonymous Coward]

Even NASA can't afford those incompetent thieves. Last night I was in the bar, and Bill says he took his new multimedia computer back to Best Buy because the sound going from the HDMI to the TV had stopped after a Windows update. They charged him $135.00, which he didn't know was to reinstall the original, perfectly good driver that Microsoft had replaced with one that didn't work! Microsoft did that to me with XP several years ago; I told him NEVER let Windows Update change anything that isn't security related. I also said a few other choice things about Microsoft as well, but I won't add them here.

I told him next time call me, I'd save him $135 and a trip to Bust Buy. It would have taken them all of five minutes (if that) to solve it, assuming they had a ghost of a clue as to what they were doing.

I don't believe that story for one second! Everyone knows that the Geek Squad wouldn't know how to fix a problem like that.