Computer Science – Performance
Scientific paper
Apr 2003
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2003eaeja....11850b&link_type=abstract
EGS - AGU - EUG Joint Assembly, Abstracts from the meeting held in Nice, France, 6 - 11 April 2003, abstract #11850
Computer Science
Performance
Scientific paper
New planned missions such as Europe's EXOMARS mission call for regional exploration rover systems with an operational travel distance in the range of some kilometers or some tens of kilometers. This implies the requirement for a higher degree of autonomy for both, rover system operations for travel, and payload operations for scientific mission purposes. The efforts linked to control autonomy are closely linked to the active control needs of a rover's locomotion system: If a rover is capable to passively cope with a wide range of terrain topologies, the corresponding control system will be much simpler in terms of hardware and software. This contribution presents the results of a Technology Development Activity carried out for t he European Space Agency (ESA) under the label "SOLERO" - Solar Powered Exploration Rover. The activity defined a complete system for a regional exploration rover based on a new and innovative six-wheeled locomotion system. Furthermore, a breadboard model of the 10 kg-class rover was designed and realized in order to demonstrate the feasibility of the mechanical, power management, and control concepts. The SOLERO mechanical structure is an optimization of the "Shrimp" rover developed at EPFL. It has one wheel mounted on a fork in the front, one wheel in the rear and two bogies on each side. The parallel architecture of the bogies and the spring suspended fork provides a high ground clearance while keeping all its 6 motorized wheels in ground contact. This ensures excellent climbing capabilities over obstacles higher than the wheel diameter. Moreover, this original combination of wheeled locomotion and passive adaptation helps to reduce power consumption compared to active design such as legged rovers, without sensible reduction of climbing abilities. To remove the problems linked with energy storage, not only power reduction is important, but also the power management. SOLERO uses mainly solar cells to generate the electrical power, because it's currently the most adapted solution for local energy generation on a rover. However the use of solar power only, have several constraints linked with the incoming solar radiation (insolation). To determine SOLERO's power budget and performances, a Mars insolation and environment model has been chosen as reference. The total mass is only 10kg and its locomotion performance, in comparison with actual rovers, leads SOLERO to become the perfect candidate for long range mission on near-sun planets.
Bertrand Reinhold
Lamon Pierre
Michaud S.
Schiele A.
Siegwart Roland
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