The following technologies were supported by the Mars Technology Program, either fully or partially, and infused into the MER project.

DIMES: Descent Image Motion Estimation System
Uses three sequential images taken during descent and separated in space and time, to estimate the lateral velocity of the landing system. If too high, rockets on the backshell are fired to reduce the lateral speed of the lander.

Stereo Vision:
Uses stereo camera pairs for imagery to calculate the distance to pixels in the scene. Used onboard the rover for autonomous navigation and obstacle avoidance, as well as in operations for ranging to science targets and selection of navigation waypoints.

Visual Odometry
Onboard software which autonomously extracts image features from stereo imagery and tracks the features over successive image sets as the rover moves. From this it can develop an accurate estimate of the overall rover motion. This technique is complimentary to the baseline inertial estimation, often working better in rough terrain, but not as well in very smooth, featureless terrain.

GESTALT: Grid-based Estimation of Surface Traversability Applied to Local Terrain
Derivative algorithm of CMU-developed navigation software called Morphin. GESTALT uses stereo images of the terrain immediately in front of the rover to analyze the "goodness" of possible driving directions, ranging across the spectrum from severe left turns through severe right turns. Goodness is based on terrain geometry, roughness, confidence in stereo range data, and other factors. Driving direction decisions may also be weighted with knowledge of the desired goal direction.

Manipulation and Mobility
Algorithms for robot manipulation and mobility (e.g. forward and inverse kinematics) are now standard robotics technology, and have been developed and utilized at JPL for many years.

SAP/Maestro (Winner of the "NASA Software of the Year" Award)
SAP: Science Activity Planner used by science team of MER
Maestro: Publicly-released version of SAP
Both are versions of WITS, Web Interface for TeleScience. Java-based graphical user interface that allows for collaborative science operation across multiple computer stations, both locally and remotely. Specifically, it provides viewing of science data such as 3D imagery, in which science targets may be selected and operations previewed.

PTeP: Parallel Telemetry Processor
This system, written in Java, provides a multithreaded task-dispatching framework for downlink processing that allows existing data-processing applications to be easily integrated into the processing pipeline. Used for all data manipulated by SAP.

PRECURSOR INTEGRATED SYSTEM TECHNOLOGY DEMONSTRATIONS

LRSR: Long Range Science Rover
Development of rover-based landerless operations, after the 1997 Pathfinder mission and as a precursor to the MER mission concept. MER technologies such as stereo vision, sun sensing, and SAP were developed or employed. Field trials were held in 1996 and 1997.

FIDO: Field Integrated Design & Operations
Development of a MER-sized research rover and field trials in 2001 and 2002 to assist the training of Mars scientists and operations personnel by allowing these people the opportunity to operate a fully-instrumented rover within challenging geological settings on Earth that are analogous to settings on Mars.

RELATED NASA TECHNOLOGIES

MAPGEN: Mixed Initiative Activity-Planning Generator
Software which determines that the plan is within the bounds of the available resources onboard the rovers, and is free of any temporal violations. In addition to taking into account various mission and flight rules, the system keeps track of the intent of the user when generating a feasible plan. Funded by NASA Code R, CICT Program.