The rover robot will be both remotely operated and have autonomous functions for navigation. To cover the area and travel the 5000 m that we have planned, our robot will need to be speedy. This causes some navigation problems.
There is a time delay between the earth and the moon (approximately 3.4 seconds). This makes it difficult teleoperate a lunar rover from earth. From studying the tele-operated Lunokhods, lunar rovers sent by Russia during the 1970s, we learn a lot. They traveled less than one kilometer per day and they had high driver fatique, They could only drive for about 2 hours.
The tele-operation of our robot will make use of new research on visual aides for remote control. New studies are being done to develop better software for the operators on earth to use. Operators need to be able to tell the rover what to do and when to do it. They also need to be able to predict where the robot went during the time delay while the message was being transmitted to the moon and then data sent back to earth. The robot needs to know when to turn not to crash into things, obstacle avoidance. During the delay the operators won’t know what the effects of the move are. This is where the new driver interface is helpful. It is a visual interface that lets the driver see where the rover is at all times. The software predicts the movements and creates a visual for the driver. It is shown on big screens. Simulations have shown that the system is a help to the driver and make it easier to control the robot. [23]
The navigation subsystem will also consist of wheel and front cams under computer control. Data will be sent back to earth using the high gain antenna to provide tele-operators with current location and terrain pictures.
There will be two avoidance hazard cameras, back and front to help the robot not run into obstacles. The terrain is very rough at the South Pole. The robot will have to travel in and out of craters to accomplish its task of finding water/ice.
We need to travel 5000 meters to win the extra $5 million. We used a length online conversion software to figure out how long it will take to travel 5000 meters. 5000 m = 500,000 cm
We are traveling at 60 cm per sec.
3600 cm per minute. About 118.1 feet,
0.036 kilometers. 0.02237 miles
360 meters per minute 139 minutes
140 minutes = 2 hours and 20 minutes.
Every 2 hours 20 minutes we can travel 5 kilometers. This means that we can accomplish the task of driving 5000m easily during the mission. We are staying through the lunar night so we have plenty of time.
