A team is developing a rover-based computer system that can identify geologically relevant elements in a camera scene. The technology, supported by NASA’s Astrobiology Science and Technology Instrument Development (ASTID) program, could give future robotic explorers a kind of visual recognition. This would allow them to identify scientifically interesting targets in the images they take.

“Our goal is to make smart instruments that can do more within each command cycle,” says David Thompson of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

Thompson is heading a project called TextureCam, which involves creating a computer vision package that can map a surface by identifying geological features. It is primarily envisioned for a rover, but it could also benefit a spacecraft visiting an asteroid or an aerobot hovering in the atmosphere of a distant world.