ogy. Her focus within the project is helping the robot and humans actively share information, anticipate one another’s decisions and adjust their actions as a team. The goal is a robot that isn’t just taking orders but is built to understand what scientists are trying to accomplish and help them reason through their next move. She points out that robotics engineers and geologists each have their own tools to answer questions like where a robot should go, but those tools aren’t merged. “That’s a big focus now: taking how scientists think about exploration and representing it in a way the robot can understand — and vice versa,” Wilson said. Early on in the project, Ewing, the NASA scientist and geologist, recognized the value of someone with Wilson’s background. “I had not thought about working with cognitive scientists in the context of robotic applications,” he said. “But once I talked to Cristina, it was obvious why that was needed. It expanded the scope of the project and my thinking about this problem.” S T EPS TOWARD MARS In recent years, the team has made trips to Oregon’s Mount Hood to simulate the lunar environment, and New Mexico’s White Sands National Park to approximate the Martian landscape. During the August trip to White Sands, Wilson was joined by six others from her lab, including Mason Allen. Allen met Wilson as a first-year undergraduate in 2022 and started working in her lab shortly after that. Now a senior, he is focused on designing, assembling and refining the robot leg that gathers much of the critical data for 44 OregonStater.org ↑ Wilson and the LASSIE team scout routes (top left) and review the robot’s self-generated walking plans at sunrise (top right). OSU senior Mason Allen and undergraduate researcher Iris Li delve into the data and human-robot exchanges shaping every step (bottom right and left). DuRINg THE AuguST TRIP TO WHITE SANDS, WORkDAYS STRETcHED uP TO 16 HOuRS.
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