Author Topic: Scarab: Lunar Rover (Read 6416 times)

sdk32285 · « **on:** September 15, 2007, 08:50:00 PM »

Check out our latest project:

Rebelgium · « **Reply #1 on:** September 16, 2007, 05:34:29 AM »

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Check out my latest project:

You mean "our" right? ... right? You couldn't have built that beast alone?

It looks great. You don't see much lunar robots with such a nice finish.

nice surface adapting, I'd like to see some videos of it hanling some real rocky terrain

sdk32285 · « **Reply #2 on:** September 16, 2007, 06:20:25 AM »

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You mean "our" right? ... right? You couldn't have built that beast alone?

Very true

It actually does a great job with rocky terrain, We'll have to grab video next time were out in the field.

Rebelgium · « **Reply #3 on:** September 16, 2007, 06:24:03 AM »

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It actually does a great job with rocky terrain, We'll have to grab video next time were out in the field.

Awesome! I hope to see that soon

hgordon · « **Reply #4 on:** September 16, 2007, 08:17:05 AM »

Interesting project. Is there a write-up anywhere on how you plan to protect the electronics and drive mechanisms against temperature extremes ?

sdk32285 · « **Reply #5 on:** September 16, 2007, 10:21:35 AM »

We have not published any write ups yet, but I'll post as they become available.

Admin · « **Reply #6 on:** September 24, 2007, 06:34:34 PM »

Any sensors planned for it?

Also, to do embedded videos, do this:

Code: [Select]

[youtube=425,350]o8Je_9U8wC8[/youtube]

ed1380 · « **Reply #7 on:** September 24, 2007, 07:08:55 PM »

pretty cool

how big is it really? hard to tell form teh video

sdk32285 · « **Reply #8 on:** September 24, 2007, 10:02:14 PM »

http://www.frc.ri.cmu.edu/project/lri/

This site has some cool movies, as well as a vehicle data sheet.

We are still exploring/developing our sensor suits. Part of the challenge is that in the lunar polar crater regions there is no sunlight. As such pretty much all vision systems are out.

JesseWelling · « **Reply #9 on:** September 25, 2007, 12:32:46 AM »

Not that you have infinite development funds, but couldn't you use some other wavelength such as IR?
Maybe that's a bad example though... You'd expect the Lunar Polar Regions not to have a whole lot of temperature variation... $:-\$ looks like you will need active sensors of some kind.

sdk32285 · « **Reply #10 on:** September 25, 2007, 07:42:48 AM »

Another aspect of no sunlight means extreme cold. The temperature at the bottom of the craters is about -233 C (40 Kelvin), so IR wouldn't really work all that great

.

We are primarily looking at different LIDAR techniques.

hgordon · « **Reply #11 on:** September 25, 2007, 11:26:52 AM »

Quote from: sdk32285 on September 25, 2007, 07:42:48 AM

Another aspect of no sunlight means extreme cold. The temperature at the bottom of the craters is about -233 C (40 Kelvin), so IR wouldn't really work all that great. We are primarily looking at different LIDAR techniques.

You might want to consider "micropower impulse radar" as an alternative - you won't have to worry about keeping your optics clear as you would with LIDAR. As a starting point, see http://www-eng.llnl.gov/mir/mir_home.html

sdk32285 · « **Reply #12 on:** September 25, 2007, 01:42:06 PM »

Hi
I'm having a hard time finding details online.
Do you know an approximate FOV and resolution for a MIR unit?
Another thing that we need to look at is how easily (where easily is a relative term) a sensor can be space qualified.
On the other hand we are very power limited which would make an impulse/low power technique very appealing.
Also while I have not used an MIR before, I have found radar to have very noisy data which gets in the way of high resolution scans.

hgordon · « **Reply #13 on:** September 25, 2007, 02:21:17 PM »

Quote from: sdk32285 on September 25, 2007, 01:42:06 PM

Hi
I'm having a hard time finding details online.
Do you know an approximate FOV and resolution for a MIR unit?
Another thing that we need to look at is how easily (where easily is a relative term) a sensor can be space qualified.
On the other hand we are very power limited which would make an impulse/low power technique very appealing.
Also while I have not used an MIR before, I have found radar to have very noisy data which gets in the way of high resolution scans.

The Livermore website is pretty vague on details, but they provide a technical contact, so you should probably ask directly. My guess is that FOV, range and resolution are very much a function of antenna design, and that it's not unusual to employ this technology in phased arrays. The nice thing about RF is that it is not so difficult to harden against environment in comparison with other technologies.

Micropower pulsed radar imaging is not a new technology - just do some searches on low power radar, and you'll probably turn up a lot more information. Along those lines, here was an interesting link - http://spie.org/x8537.xml

sdk32285 · « **Reply #14 on:** December 18, 2007, 03:37:54 PM »

Hi all
I just posted some more video as well as some of our test reports.
The obstacle video is pretty cool.

http://www.frc.ri.cmu.edu/project/lri/

Mega · « **Reply #15 on:** December 19, 2007, 01:09:37 PM »

Excellent video's, very cool robot!
Were you also involved in the Carnegie Mellon H1ghlander project?
This project inspired me for my HummBot project.

sdk32285 · « **Reply #16 on:** December 19, 2007, 04:11:08 PM »

I started towards the end of the second grand challenge (ie. H1ghlander and Sandstorm)

Mega · « **Reply #17 on:** December 20, 2007, 10:40:25 AM »

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I started towards the end of the second grand challenge (ie. H1ghlander and Sandstorm)

Cool. That must have been a great project. What part of the h1ghlander have you been working on?

sdk32285 · « **Reply #18 on:** December 29, 2007, 06:52:34 PM »

I did not actually work on h1ghlander, I was working on a different project.

Admin · « **Reply #19 on:** December 29, 2007, 08:20:04 PM »

I did some work for the original Sandstorm, but I heard negative things about the team dynamics so I didn't get very involved . . .

Mega · « **Reply #20 on:** December 30, 2007, 01:56:57 AM »

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but I heard negative things about the team dynamics so I didn't get very involved . . .

That's probably the reason they did not win the challenge

hemanth · « **Reply #21 on:** October 05, 2009, 06:14:21 PM »

I found an interesting pic on wavelengths that are suitable for lunar communication:
Can you give the details on how to build this thing?

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Author Topic: Scarab: Lunar Rover (Read 6416 times)

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