Our Mission

Towards More Effective Remote execution of exploration OPerations using multimodal interfaces

During 04 of March to 08 of April of 2024, the Austrian Space Forum – in cooperation with the Armenian Aero Space Agency as the host agency – will conduct an integrated Mars analog field mission (AMADEE-24).

The AMADEE-24 will be directed by a dedicated Mission Support Center in Austria. A small field crew of highly trained analog astronauts will conduct experiments preparing for future human and robotic Mars exploration missions.

MEROP team brings to the mission a novel interface for rovers's remote operation.

Our interface aims at improving the efficiency of planetary exploration while using a teleoperated rover when an astronaut is in the habitat and lacks visual contact with the rover.

With our interface, astronauts can feel the robot’s traction state and its orientation in space (attitude).

Our avatar aims to improve the sensation of the delay in each the rover is while being teleoperated by the astronaut in the habitat.

Our Team

MEROP is a team of researchers from Institute for Systems and Robotics, at Instituto Superior Técnico, Interactive Technologies Institute, and ISCTE-IUL, in Lisbon, Portugal.

Since 2019 we have been working with Austrian Space Forum and teams participating in AMADEE-20 mission to work on the different aspects of the mission plans and integration.