QUESTION: 
What types of commands will you be able to send to the rover (like forward,
turn, right, stop, etc.)? How detailed will your control be?
 
ANSWER from David Mittman on August 12, 1997:
Good question! Here is a list of many of the commands that the Rover
understands. This listing gives only the letters which represent the command
parameters (for instance, "CAMERA c" where 'c' is Left, Right, or Rear). If
you are interested in additional details for some commands, please let me
know.

ABORT SEQUENCE 
APPLY PATCH SET s LENGTH n 
CALIBRATE HEADING WITH SUN AT h USING CAMERA c BY TIME t 
CALL FUNCTION AT ADDRESS a WITH BANKS b1, b2 [PARAMETERS p1 p2 ...] 
CAPTURE IMAGE WITH CAMERA c AT EXPOSURE t, RETURN REGION FROM (r1,c1) TO 
     (r2,c2) WITH APID a [compressed] 
CLEAR c
DRIVE MOTORS
DEPLOY APXS p 
END OF SEQUENCE
FIND ROCK NEAR x y WITHIN m MINUTES 
GO TO WAYPOINT AT x y WITHIN m MINUTES 
HEALTH CHECK AT LEVEL n
HEAT FOR n MINUTES IN SEQUENCE s [s ...] 
LIMIT-CALIBRATE POSITION SENSORS 
MATERIAL ADHERENCE
MOVE BACKWARD n COUNTS 
MOVE FORWARD n COUNTS 
OUTPUT x TO PORT p
PATCH MEMORY SET s CRC c SEGMENT b ADDRESS a TO x x x ...
POSITION APXS 
READ ANALOG CHANNEL c AT GAIN g [ c AT g ... ]
READ BYTES FROM PORT p p p ...
READ n BYTES FROM SEGMENT s ADDRESS a
RUN MOTOR m FOR t CENTONS 
RUN MOTOR m TO p
SEND APXS COMMAND c
SET CLOCK TO t
SET DEVICE d STATUS s 
SET ERROR MASK TO m
SET MISSION PHASE p 
SET PARAMETER p = value
SET VEHICLE POSITION TO x y, HEADING TO h 
SHUTDOWN UNTIL t
SOIL MECHANICS TEST ON WHEEL w AT POSITION p, RUN FOR n COUNTS, REPEAT k TIMES 
SYNCHRONIZE CLOCK
TEST n BYTES OF MEMORY IN SEGMENT s AT ADDRESS a
TURN LEFT n BAMS 
TURN OFF DEVICES d 
TURN ON DEVICES d 
TURN RIGHT n BAMS 
TURN TO HEADING h 
TURN TOWARD x, y 
UNSTOW p d c l r 
WAIT FOR s SECONDS
WAIT UNTIL LOCAL TIME t
WAIT UNTIL MISSION TIME t
WAIT UNTIL s < v, LIMIT m 
WAIT UNTIL s > v, LIMIT m 
WHEEL ABRASION MEASUREMENT AT GAIN g 
ZERO-CALIBRATE POSITION SENSORS 

ANSWER from Bridget Landry on October 6, 1997: 
We can command the rover at a variety of detail levels.  Because there is
onboard autonomy, there is a command "find rock" and one called "go to way
point".  These commands have parameters which include the coordinates for a
target (either the rock to take a measurement of the the "way point" to aim
for); the rover then computes the best path to get to that target.  However,
we can also give very detailed commands along the lines of "back up one
meter" or "turn 70 degrees to the right". Early in the mission, we used more
detailed commands, but we have now used many of the more general commands,
trusting that the onboard autonomy capabilities will perform properly.

Bridget Landry
Deputy Uplink System Engineer
Mars Pathfinder