Gallery
Monthly Archives: September 2008
Mast mockup for wire routing experiment
The rover’s camera motion is panned from an actuator at the base of the
mast. Numerous wires route within the mast to service the cameras,
antenna, tilt motor and sensors that reside on top. The mast pans more than 360 degrees, which imposes substantial twisting and spiralling on the wires. Since the wire bundle is so dense, and moves so much, the mast is mocked up to experiment with the details. These parts assemble to emulate a mockup of the mast and its panning motion.
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Mirrors
Mirrors view more of the robot surface than possible from direct camera viewing. Close-ups of the drive-line and side-frames are possible. The curved surface functions like a bus mirror to view a large area. The telephoto optics achieve good resolution.
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| From AstroboticBlogPhotos |
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(CNN) – When Neil Armstrong became the first man to set foot on the moon, he uttered unforgettable words. But the next visitor to roam the lunar landscape may send back e-mail instead. One of the teams competing in the Google Lunar X Prize is considering this rover concept for the mission. Welcome to a new… {read more}
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Panorama
This panorama is automatically stitched from ten photos panned by the robot.
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Tiny thermocouples
Many thermocouples monitor temperatures throughout the spacecraft and rover. The information is used during the mission to maneuver for thermal regulation and to monitor thermal conditions. These thermocouples are so small that they can be embedded in composite layups. They operate as network nodes so that they share common wiring that reduces harness complexity.
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Telephoto lens
The telephoto lens requires three closed-loop motions with position feedback…. zoom, focus and iris… and the pointing requires pan and tilt. By comparison, locomotion succeeds with only two decoupled open-loop drive actuators.
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