{"id":268183,"date":"2026-02-01T04:32:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T04:32:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/268183\/"},"modified":"2026-02-01T04:32:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T04:32:14","slug":"nasas-perseverance-rover-completes-first-ai-planned-drive-on-mars-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/268183\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA\u2019s Perseverance Rover Completes First AI-Planned Drive on Mars"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-block-key=\"vhjsu\">But for Perseverance\u2019s drives on the 1,707 and 1,709 Martian days, or sols, of the mission, the team did something different: Generative AI provided the analysis of the high-resolution orbital imagery from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jpl.nasa.gov\/news\/one-of-nasas-key-cameras-orbiting-mars-takes-100000th-image\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">HiRISE<\/a> (High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) camera aboard NASA\u2019s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and terrain-slope data from digital elevation models. After identifying critical terrain features \u2014 bedrock, outcrops, hazardous boulder fields, sand ripples, and the like \u2014 it generated a continuous path complete with waypoints.<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"3jeur\">To ensure the AI\u2019s instructions were fully compatible with the rover\u2019s flight software, the engineering team also processed the drive commands through JPL\u2019s \u201cdigital twin\u201d (virtual replica of the rover), verifying over 500,000 telemetry variables before sending commands to Mars.<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"f3cr2\">On Dec. 8, with generative AI waypoints in its memory, Perseverance drove 689 feet (210 meters). Two days later, it drove 807 feet (246 meters).<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"69bfe\">\u201cThe fundamental elements of generative AI are showing a lot of promise in streamlining the pillars of autonomous navigation for off-planet driving: perception (seeing the rocks and ripples), localization (knowing where we are), and planning and control (deciding and executing the safest path),\u201d said Vandi Verma, a space roboticist at JPL and a member of the Perseverance engineering team. \u201cWe are moving towards a day where generative AI and other smart tools will help our surface rovers handle kilometer-scale drives while minimizing operator workload, and flag interesting surface features for our science team by scouring huge volumes of rover images.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"2gue3\">\u201cImagine intelligent systems not only on the ground at Earth, but also in edge applications in our rovers, helicopters, drones, and other surface elements trained with the collective wisdom of our NASA engineers, scientists, and astronauts,\u201d said Matt Wallace, manager of JPL\u2019s Exploration Systems Office. \u201cThat is the game-changing technology we need to establish the infrastructure and systems required for a permanent human presence on the Moon and take the U.S. to Mars and beyond.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>More about Perseverance<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"cuqe5\">Managed for NASA by Caltech, JPL is home to the Rover Operations Center (ROC). It also manages operations of the Perseverance rover on behalf of the agency\u2019s Science Mission Directorate as part of NASA\u2019s Mars Exploration Program portfolio.<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"dn1nk\">For more information on the ROC, visit:<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"38b8r\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.jpl.nasa.gov\/roc\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/www.jpl.nasa.gov\/roc\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"But for Perseverance\u2019s drives on the 1,707 and 1,709 Martian days, or sols, of the mission, the team&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":268184,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[85,46,141,145],"class_list":["post-268183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268183\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}