Curiosity is offline

Over the past year, the Curiosity rover has made many amazing discoveries that have helped scientists gain a more complete picture of Mars. As you know, the rover is controlled by the operator, and the management process is very complicated. On Habré even published an interview (from the "first-hand" by the way) with the Curiosity operator, after which it became clear how the whole system of control of the device works. Now the developers have adapted the rover software, making it autonomous. In other words, now Curiosity can choose the most optimal route from its “point of view”.

The rover software is connected with its cameras: the rover gets a detailed “picture” of the area, and after analyzing the information received, the rover paves the route itself, moving to a given point of the route. According to the developers, the rover is several routes, and selects the best.
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The other day, an autonomous control system operation was checked, and Curiosity itself walked 10 meters. NASA scientists set the end point of the route, and the rover itself chose the path to it. This, while not so long, the journey ended well, and the rover arrived where it was needed.

The next stage will be an independent journey of the rover to Mount Sharp, and the distance to it is no longer 10 meters, but 7.24 kilometers (4.5 miles). An approximate route was chosen based on images of Mars taken from orbit, but the rover itself will choose its exact path to the final goal.

By the way, all this is done not for the sake of entertainment (who will be entertained if the cost of a mistake is an invaluable rover, the cost of which is measured not only by the means spent on its creation and delivery to the Red Planet). The fact is that with autonomous movement, Curiosity will be able to increase speed, and “do” 10 meters per day more than if it is under the control of the operator.

Via forbes