The success of NASA's Mars Exploration Rovers has demonstrated the
important benefits that mobility adds to planetary exploration. With
ExoMars and the Mars Science Laboratory missions, mobility will play
an everincreasing role. Very soon, mission requirements will impose
that planetary exploration rovers drive over-thehorizon in a single
command cycle. This will require an evolution of the methods and
technologies currently used.

The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) has been conducting research in ground
control and in autonomous robotics for several years already. One of
the target applications is planetary exploration using mobile
platforms. The  emphasis of our research program is on reactive
on-board autonomy software and long-range rover navigation. 

This paper provides experimental results obtained during the summer
2006 test campaign for several of the key technologies developed under
our research program. In particular, the paper describes results in
the area of terrain modelling, path planning, rover motion control,
and rover localisation. Statistical analyses have been performed on
test results, where relevant, to provide an indication of success
ratios and performance.