Autonomy Software Binder

Welcome to the Autonomy Binder! This is the centralized engineering reference and operations manual for the Mars Rover Design Team autonomy software.

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Binder Navigation

General Architecture & Operations

• 01. Quick Start and Operations
• 02. Architecture Overview
• 03. The State Machine
• URC Autonomy Rules

Subsystems Deep Dive

• Perception Subsystem
• Path Planning Subsystem
• Control and Actuation Subsystem

Controllers

• PID Controller
• Predictive Stanley Controller
• Pure Pursuit Controller

Vision Pipeline

• Cameras & Hardware Drivers
• ArUco Tag Detection
• Object Detection
• Vision Utilities

Handlers

• State Machine Handler
• Camera Handler
• Tag Detection Handler
• Object Detection Handler
• LiDAR Handler
• Waypoint Handler
• Recording Handler

Board Drivers

• Drive Board Driver
• Navigation Board Driver
• Multimedia Board Driver

Threading & Infrastructure

• Autonomy Thread Interface
• Thread Pools

Networking

• RoveComm Protocol

Logs, Data, and Visualization

• Log Files & Quill Logging Engine
• Camera Feeds & Video Recording
• Path Plots, Analytics, and Post-Mortem Graphing
• 3D Interactive Visualization & The Visualization Engine

Configuration and Tuning

• Autonomy Constants Reference & Tuning Guide
• CMake Build Configuration & Options

Troubleshooting & Checklists

• Troubleshooting & Field Diagnostics Guide
• Autonomy Pre-Flight & Operations Checklist

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External Resources & Team Portals

Resource	URL	Description
MRDT Documentation Portal	docs.themrdt.org	Central organization wiki, systems specifications, and team-wide documentation.
Software Documentation Repo	MissouriMRDT/RoveSoDocs	Source repository for team documentation and technical binders.
MRDT GitLab Organization	gitlab.themrdt.org/MissouriMRDT	Team GitLab instance hosting internal repositories, CI pipelines, and large datasets.
USGS LiDAR Data Repository	MissouriMRDT/USGS_Data	Primary storage for preprocessed USGS 3DEP LiDAR point clouds and DuckDB spatial databases.
Autonomy Installation Guide	INSTALL.md	Step-by-step native and container installation guide for development and Jetson deployment.
Contributing Guidelines	CONTRIBUTING.md	Branching guidelines, coding conventions, Git workflow, and pull request requirements.
Web Visualizer Suite	visualizer.themrdt.org	Hosted web-based mission planning and data inspection suite.
Autonomy Task Visualizer	visualizer.themrdt.org/autonomy-task/	Web tool for planning, simulating, and reviewing autonomy waypoints and navigation trajectories.
LiDAR Visualizer Tool	visualizer.themrdt.org/lidar-tool/	Web tool for 3D point cloud inspection, terrain cross-sections, and slope visualization.
URC Official Rules & Guidelines	urc.marssociety.org/…	Official Mars Society University Rover Challenge rulebooks, requirements, and Q&A.

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Operational Cheat Sheet

Operation	Command
Clean Build Directory	rm -rf build && mkdir build
CMake Configuration (Release)	cmake -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
Compile Executable	make -C build -j$(nproc)
Run Autonomy Software	./build/Autonomy_Software
Run Simulation Mode	cmake -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DBUILD_SIM_MODE=ON && make -C build -j$(nproc)
Execute Test Suites	cmake -B build -DBUILD_TESTS_MODE=ON && make -C build -j$(nproc) && ctest --test-dir build --output-on-failure
Interactive Hotkeys (In Terminal)	h (Help), f (FPS), p (Pose), s (Sensors), d (Drive Powers), t (Tags), m (Objects), q (Quit)
Compile Binder to Single Markdown / PDF	bash tools/compile_binder_pandoc.sh or bash tools/compile_binder_pdf.sh