Curiosity Rover Autonomously Samples Rocks With Incredible Precision

As cars here on Earth begin to drive themselves and robots autonomously roam sidewalks delivering food and nearly running over dogs, over on Mars, the Curiosity rover very much remains a remotely piloted vehicle. That's part technical restraints, part design: Curiosity is up there to do science, so it must follow the commands of scientists here on Earth. Still, that doesn't mean automation can't lend a hand. Back in May of 2016, NASA began using an autonomous targeting system, called AEGIS, that allows the Curiosity rover's cameras to automatically detect preferable terrain to sample. Over the next year, the system was able to eyeball and automatically identify suitable rocks with very high accuracy, researchers report today in Science Robotics.