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ROBOTICS IN AUTONOMOUS PLANETARY EXPLORATIONRAJA.D, DEEPAN.A

Kongunadu College of Engineering & Technology

draja1111@gmail.com, deepan111@gmail.com 

ABSTRACT:Today’s robotic technology is about

new ways of connecting people to computers,

people to knowledge, people to the physical

world, and people to people. This technology

invites investment in a system that saves

mountains of money, through applications such

as resource allocation, fraud detection, and

database mining, and training. One of the currentissues of using robots is in planetary exploration.

Manned missions for planetary exploration are

sometimes impossible due to a number of 

reasons. In some cases, such as for the inner

moons of Jupiter or the surface of Venus, the

radiation or thermal environments are

unacceptable to the human body, while in others,

such as for the outer solar system, would last

almost a human lifetime. The obvious solution to

this problem is the use of robotic vehicles.

This paper provides the basic ideas about the

robots that are being used in autonomous

planetary fields.

AUTONOMOUS PLANETARYRESEARCH

One aspect of the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

project is planetary exploration by fully

autonomous flight vehicles. Such a vehicle

would be transported to the planet as part of a

larger ship from Earth. Once deployed on the

planetary body of interest, for example Mars,

the vehicle would be able to collect

atmospheric and imagery data by flying over

the surface. Sensor packages might include

those that detect temperature, topographical

and sub surface features, elemental spectra,

and other items of scientific value.

Considerations must be made for the

atmospheric conditions of the planet or anybody in space under investigation.

The main requirements of the exploring

robots are

  Materials used in robot

  Components.

  Propulsion

  Control

  Vision system

  Navigation

  Communication

Fig. A typical planetary exploration robot 

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MATERAILS USED

The materials used in the design of the

exploring robots must be very much suited to

the outer space. Some of the important

conditions that are to be satisfied are:

1.  The material must be smart enough to

suit to the gravitational pull present in

the planet to which it is to be sent.

2.  It should not over weigh during the

propulsion.

3.  The thermal behaviour of the

materials must suit to the

circumstances.

4.  The most important consideration is

the material, which covers the whole

rover. This sounds more because

during the nighttime the temperature

may fall down to -100oc (150 F).

5.  The material must be rigid and strong

but must be flexible to the

circumstances

6.  It should be unaffected due to noise

disturbances.

7.  Must be able to provide good quality

imagery under any conditions.

8.  The important thing is it should be

economical.

BASIC COMPONENTS

In addition to manipulator- based robotics in

near- earth orbits, autonomous planetary

exploration will play an important role in

future space missions. The rover which

includes, Lander spacecraft configuration,

which allows an investigator to remotely

perform geosciences experiments on planet,

example Mars or mercury uses smaller

rovers. The three main components that are

important in designing the exploration rover

are

Fig . 2. The components of the exploring

robot

The Imaging head, mounted on the top of a

vertical cantilever rod coming out of the

lander, is equipped with stereo camera and a

2-degree of freedom pan-tilt unit. The

cameras are optimised for both taking

stereoscopic panorama images of the Lander

site as well as the detection of interesting

objects around the Lander.

Fig. Imaging head with pan and tilt unit.

  ROVERS: The rovers can use a drill,

mounted on a small arm, to bore into

a rock. This drill is officially known

as the Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT).

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Fig. A Micro rover

  The rovers have a magnifying

camera, mounted on the same arm as

the drill, which scientists can use to

carefully look at the fine structure of 

a rock.

  The rovers have a mass spectrometer

that is able to determine the

composition of iron-bearing minerals

in rocks. This spectrometer is

mounted on the arm, as well.

  There are magnets mounted at three

different points on the rover. Iron-

bearing sand particles will stick to the

magnets so that scientists can look at

them with the cameras or analyse

them with the spectrometers.  The rovers can send all of this data

back to Earth using one of three

different radio antennas.

  To fit in a small space the rover

squats down by breaking the rocker

links where they pivot on the body.

  Solar cells are used to provide the

required power supply to the rover.

PROPULSION

After the completion of the assembly and

after the rover has undergone various

simulation tests, the space robot is ready to

launch. The propulsion is the process by

which the rover is made to be inside the large

chamber called space ship and is made to

travel with a huge initial velocity. The huge

initial velocity facilitates the space ship to

reach the outer part of the earth’s

atmosphere. The essential thing for

propulsion is fuel. The great disadvantage

faced by the technicians is the cost that is

being spent for the fuel. The cost that is

invested for the fuel is more than 37% of the

total cost that is required for the whole

mission. Though it costs that much the burnt

fuel will help the space ship to travel only 50

km from the ground level, the remaining

distance that it has to be covered will be

made possible only by means of huge initial

velocity. Once the ship crosses the critical

limit it is carried on from there due to the

initial acceleration.

VISION SYSTEM:

Generally a rover has nine cameras mounted

on it for the purpose of capturing images

  2 Forward B&W (Hazcam)

  2 Rear B&W (Hazcam)

  2 Mast B&W (Navcam)

  2 Mast Colour (blue to IR)

  1 Arm mounted B&W microscopic

imager.

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Fig. Position of various cameras on the

rover.

(1) Four Engineering Hazcams (Hazard

Avoidance Cameras):

Mounted on the lower portion of the front

and rear of the rover, these black-and-whitecameras use visible light to capture three-

dimensional (3-D) imagery. This imagery

safeguards against the rover getting lost or

inadvertently crashing into unexpected

obstacles, and works in tandem with software

that allows the rover make its own safety

choices and to "think on its own."

The cameras each have a wide field of view

of about 120 degrees. The rover uses pairs of 

Hazcam images to map out the shape of the

terrain as far as 3 meters (10 feet) in front of 

it, in a "wedge" shape that is over 4 meters

wide at the farthest distance.

(2) Two Engineering Navcams (Navigation

Cameras):

Mounted on the mast (the rover "neck and

head), these black-and-white cameras use

visible light to gather panoramic, three-

dimensional (3D) imagery. The Navcam is a

stereo pair of cameras, each with a 45-degree

field of view to support ground navigation

planning by scientists and engineers. They

work in cooperation with the Hazcams by

providing a complementary view of the

terrain.

(3) Two Science Pancams (Panoramic

Cameras):

This colour, stereo pair of cameras, called as

the “eyes” of the rover, are mounted on the

rover mast and delivers three-dimensional

panoramas of the surface. As well as science

panoramas, the narrow field of view and

height of the cameras basically mimic the

resolution of the human eye (0.3

milliradians); giving the world a view similar

to what a human geologist might see if she or

he were standing on the surface. Also, the

Pancam detectors have 8 filters per "eye" and

between the two "eyes" there are 11 total

unique colour filters plus two-colour, solar-

imaging filters to take multispectral images.

The Pancam is also part of the rover¹s

navigation system. With the solar filter in

place, the Pancam will be pointed at the Sun

and therefore will be used as an absolute

heading sensor. Like a sophisticated

compass, the direction of the Sun combined

with the time of day tells the flight team

exactly which way the rover is facing.

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Fig. Image of the Martian eclipse taken by

the MER “spirit”

(4) ONE MICROSCOPIC IMAGER

The Microscopic Imager is a combination of 

a microscope and a CCD camera that will

provide information on the small-scale

features of rocks and soils. It will

complement the findings of other science

instruments by producing close-up views of 

surface materials. Some of those materials

will be in their natural state, while others

may be views of fresh surfaces exposed by

the Rock Abrasion Tool.

Microscopic imaging will be used to analyze

the size and shape of grains in sedimentary

rocks, which is important for identifying

whether water may have existed in the

planet's past. This monochromatic science

camera is mounted on the robotic arm to take

extreme close-up pictures of rocks and soil. .

Its field of view is 1024 x 1024 pixels in size

and it has a single, broadband filter so

imaging is in black and white.

Fig. Image of a rock on the surface of mars

taken by the microscopic imager.

COMMUNICATON

Some of the techniques that have been

followed since now in the application of 

spacial robots are

  Tele-operated.

  One camera providing vision.

  2 cameras allowing for stereo vision

and depth perception.

  UHF link with Lander.

  Tele-operated via modem and

software.

CONCLUSION

The researches extend navigation algorithmsto better analyze terrain traversability, using

wavelet representations, and to better handleuncertainty in sensing and position

estimation. This will also intend to explore

methods for landmark-based positionestimation, use of multiple sensors for terrain

perception, integrating autonomous science

exploration and navigation, and

incorporating learning algorithms to enable

the rover to adapt to unexpected changes inthe environment and vehicle characteristics.

At the most extreme researches theexploration work may lead in to the analysisof the interior of the master of our system that is THE

SUN.

References: 

1.  ADVANCED ROBOTICS. Vol.18 No.3

pp245-356.2.  UNMANNED SYSTEM Vol.22 No.2.3.  S.LAUBACH & J.W.BURDICK.  An

 autonomous sensor based path planner for planetary micro rover in IEEE