STS is being developed under the leadership of sections 347 and 352 in collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA). ESA is responsible for the development of the Sample Transfer Arm (STA) and associated motor controller avionics. JPL is responsible for the overall systems engineering design, lander mechanical elements to support sample transfer, flight software development, end-to-end verification and validation, and surface operations.
Central to the operation and function of the sample transfer system is the utilization of vision for rover localization and tube pose estimation, and force sensing for load regulation and active compliance control for tube grasping, manipulation, and insertion. JPL robotics has a strong history of implementing robust solutions to challenging robotics problems and are working hard to make STS and SRL a success.
