Perseverance from NASA has mastered autonomous movement on Mars, and now it is hard to stop it

NASA rover Perseverance now “sees” itself on Mars

The NASA rover Perseverance has gained a new ability to autonomously determine its position on the planet with an accuracy of 25 cm—far better than previous methods (up to 30 m). This opens the way for more autonomous and safer traverses across rough terrain.

How it worked before
* Odometry – calculating distance based on wheel rotations and cameras.
* With errors up to 30 m, the rover “called home” once a day so that ground engineers could compare satellite images with the rover’s panoramas.
* The comparison took several days while the rover was stationary.

New system – Mars Global Localization (MGL)
* The algorithm runs directly on the rover’s processor.
* It compares panoramic images with loaded orbital terrain maps.
* Calculations are performed on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801, which was previously used in the Ingenuity helicopter.
* Runtime – about two minutes.
* Accuracy – 25 cm.

Why this matters
1. Autonomy – the rover can make long traverses without constant communication with Earth.
2. AutoNav – the obstacle‑avoidance system no longer suffers from accumulated odometry errors.
3. AI control – combined with precise navigation, NASA is testing artificial intelligence for further autonomous movement.

Tests and initial results
* The algorithm was tested on 264 past rover stops: 100 % accuracy.
* On February 2 and 16, MGL was used in the field at the Mala Mala site near the edge of the Ezeru crater.
* The result was successful.

Conclusion: Perseverance can now “see” itself with incredible precision, significantly enhancing its autonomy and safety during Mars exploration.