The MAPGEN system represents a successful mission infusion of mixed-initiative planning technology. MAPGEN was deployed as a mission-critical component of the ground operations system for the Mars Exploration Rover mission. Each day, the ground-planning personnel employ MAPGEN to collaboratively plan the activities of the "Spirit and "Opportunity rovers, with the objective of achieving as much science as possible while ensuring rover safety and keeping within the limitations of the rovers' resources. The Mars Exploration Rover mission has now been operating for more than two years, and MAPGEN continues to be employed for activity plan generation for the Spirit and Opportunity rovers. During the multiyear deployment effort and subsequent mission operations experience, we have learned valuable lessons regarding application of mixed-initiative planning technology to mission operations.

NASA's Curiosity rover has shared a stunning panorama of its home. Composed of more than 1,000 images of Mars' landscape taken during the 2019 Thanksgiving holiday, the contains 1.8 billion pixels – deeming it the highest-resolution picture of the Martian planet yet. The rover used its Mast Camera to capture the photos of the Red Planet to produce the high-resolution panorama and relied on its medium-angle lens to for a lower-resolution -nearly 650-million-pixel panorama that includes the rover's deck and robotic arm. NASA's Curiosity rover has shared a stunning panorama of its home. Composed of more than 1,000 images of Mars' landscape taken during the 2019 Thanksgiving holiday, the contains 1.8 billion pixels – deeming it the highest-resolution picture of the Martian planet yet Both panoramas showcase'Glen Torridon,' a region on the side of Mount Sharp that Curiosity is exploring. The images were snapped between November 24 and December 1, but before NASA staff left for the holiday, the programmed the rover with certain tasks such as what angles of the planet to capture and to ensure the pictures were in focus.

A stunning panorama of Mars shows the final resting place of NASA's Opportunity. The image is a series of 354 individual pictures snapped by the rover over a 29-day period before it shutdown completely and declared'dead' by the American space agency earlier this year. The desolate Martian landscape known as Perseverance Valley was the last thing the rover saw and now serves as its graveyard. The panorama is composed of 354 individual images provided by the rover's Panoramic Camera (Pancam) from May 13 through June 10, or sols (Martian days) 5,084 through 5,111. The panorama combines images from three different Pancam filters, which admit light centered on wavelengths of 753 nanometers (near-infrared), 535 nanometers (green) and 432 nanometers (violet). A stunning panorama of Mars shows the final resting place of NASA's Opportunity.

This annotated image is a cropped version of the last 360-degree panorama taken by the Opportunity rover's Pancam from May 13 through June 10, 2018. This annotated view is presented in false color to make some differences between materials easier to see. A set of newly released photos shows what NASA's Mars rover Opportunity was looking at just before the killer dust storm hit. That storm boiled up in May 2018 and engulfed Opportunity shortly thereafter. The solar-powered robot couldn't get enough sunlight to recharge its batteries, and it went silent on June 10.

NASA's Opportunity Rover took one last stunning image of Mars's landscape, before losing touch with it after 15 years last month. The incredible 360-degree panorama shows what would been Opportunity's final resting spot in Perseverance Valley. It gives a view of the rim of the Endeavour Crater in the distance, rover tracks from Opportunity, and to the far right and left is the bottom of Perseverance Valley. The space agency lost contact with Opportunity after its years exploring the surface of the planet, laying the groundwork for future missions. A dust storm blanketed its location in June last year.

Robots get a pretty bad rap in the press. Unflatteringly portrayed as the source of mass job losses, creepy humanoid interfaces, or racist customer service chatbots, robots are now also lumped in with a faceless entity otherwise known as AI--squillions of lines of invisible code, often working against human interests. This is a far cry from the affection elicited by other, more three-dimensional robots in our pop culture. R2-D2 is beloved by generations of Star Wars fans, with K-2SO considered a breakout star of the recent Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Robots inspired our imagination as far back as Frankenstein's Monster, as mirroring human qualities, although not quite--just a wide enough gap that we can make them outcasts, or our servants, or our militaristic disposables.

Nasa engineers said goodbye to the Opportunity rover with a touching final message. The little robot spent 15 years exploring the surface of Mars, sending back unprecedented amounts of information to engineers back on Earth. But months ago the signals it was sending back started to look worrying. It told Nasa its batteries were running low and it was getting dark – before it was swallowed by a dust storm that took over the entire planet. Since then, Nasa has been sending messages to the rover in the hope of waking it up and bringing it back to life.

An artist's concept shows a NASA Mars exploration rover on the surface of Mars. The twin rovers Spirit and Opportunity were launched in 2003 and arrived at sites on Mars in January 2004. An artist's concept shows a NASA Mars exploration rover on the surface of Mars. The twin rovers Spirit and Opportunity were launched in 2003 and arrived at sites on Mars in January 2004. We probably should not project human traits onto machines.

Video Friday is your weekly selection of awesome robotics videos, collected by your Automaton bloggers. We'll also be posting a weekly calendar of upcoming robotics events for the next few months; here's what we have so far (send us your events!): Let us know if you have suggestions for next week, and enjoy today's videos. I have no idea what to even say about the Opportunity rover. I'm not sure that the amazing people at JPL do, either.

During 14 years of intrepid exploration across Mars it advanced human knowledge by confirming that water once flowed on the Red Planet - but NASA's Opportunity rover has analysed its last soil sample. The robot has been missing since the US space agency lost contact during a dust storm in June last year and was declared officially dead on Wednesday, ending one of the most fruitful missions in the history of space exploration. Unable to recharge its batteries, Opportunity left hundreds of messages from Earth unanswered over the months, and NASA said it made its last attempt at contact. "I declare the Opportunity mission as complete," Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate told a news conference at mission headquarters in Pasadena, California. The community of researchers and engineers involved in the programme were in mourning over the passing of the rover, known affectionately as Oppy. "Spent the evening at JPL as the last ever commands were sent to the Opportunity rover on #Mars," Tanya Harrison, director of Martian research at Arizona State University, tweeted after a stint at Pasadena's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.