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LUNAR ROVER

Concept proposal meeting

Dr. Ashish Dutta

Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur

Kanpur, INDIA
 Chandrayan 1: mapping the moon

Chandrayan 2: landing a mobile robot for

experiments on moon
1. Introduction: Chandrayan 2
PSLV-Lander-Rover

LANDER ROVER
Lunar surface :dust, rocks, ash,
craters,
Rocks, craters
 Many Challenges
• Lunar gravity
• Cosmic radiation
• Extreme temperature -180 to 220 C
• Difficult terrain : dust, craters, rocks
• Time lag in control 2 secs
• Flying dust, clouds cameras
• Communication with earth
DIFFERENT SUB-SYSTEMS INVOLVED IN
THE COMPLETE DESIGN
 1. Rover structure

• Structural design (frame)

• Materials for construction
• Wheels & Legs? How many wheels?
• Electronics enclosure and insulation
• Vibration suppression
• Position of arm, cameras
 2. Drive system

• Motors (DC brush less )

• Sensors (position, acceleration?)
• Leg/wheel mechanism
• Steering motor system: located at
wheel base
• Tyres : rubber , Ti wire based
 3. Control System

• Motor controllers – PID ?

• Processor requirements
• I/O considerations
• Memory Considerations
• Power requirements.
• Central controller.
4. Sensor System for Navigation
• Vision based navigation
• Path planning
• Obstacle detection (laser, ultrasonic )
• Self localization based on Lander
coordinates
5. Communication System
– Antenna Design
– Transceiver

6. Thermal System
– Passive thermal system.
– Active thermal System.

7. Power system
– Solar batteries.
– Recharging and monitoring.
– Power regulation.
– Batteries: Nickel-Cd, Silver-Zn ?
8. Lander interface
– Mechanical interface (to hold rover in position)
– Electrical interface.

9. Arm Manipulator
– DOF (5 DOF ?)
– Requirements (Cleaning solar panels,
digging, etc.)
– Structure
10. Rover Operations
– Start up procedures
– Motor and arm initialization procedures
– Rover deployments
– Robot arm cleaning
– Sample collecting + testing

11. Failure diagnostics and recovery

– Possible modes of failure
– Recovery
– Back up
 Main focus based on our
strengths in IITK
• Robot design and vision based control
• Vision based control of rover
• Coordinated wheel control with slip
• Vision based navigation
• Thermal management using
– heat pipes
 IITK WORK SCHEDULE
• Design of rover with robot arm and its
fabrication.
• Multi wheel coordination control with active
slip compensation
• Visual map generation of lunar surface and
navigation.
• Visual control of arm and rover.
• Development of test set up at IITK.
• Development of a virtual reality simulation of
rover and lunar terrain.
• Experimental evaluation of developed rover
 Future directions
• Possible route for developing indigenous
strength in this area.

• Design of advanced future rovers.

- Legged vehicles.
- Hybrid : leg and wheels based rovers.
 Strengths of IIT Kanpur
• Vision based navigation and robot control.

• Hardware development.

• Large number of systems developed : both

wheeled and legged.

• Computational aspects of robotics.

• Sensor development and integration.

 Functional specifications from VSSC

1. MOBILE ROBOT
STRUCTURE: ACCEPTABILITY / TESTING
a. kinematic alternatives
b. minimum clearance
c. wheel assembly unit:
* traction, control, payload
* steering accuracy
d. control system
e. power budget
f. solar panels: deployment+cleaning
e. payload / stability
simulation
test bed with obstacles
wheel assembly test bed
test under load
response measurement
subunits / total power testing
ramped terrain

2. VISION-BASED NAVIGATION:
a. design validation
b. path planning testing
c. terrestrial testing
d. accuracy / reliability
e. contingency / recovery
simulation
ground truth comparison
trajectory measurement test bed
repeated path point testing
 Further testing at VSSC
– Level 2 : integrated functional testing /
terrestrial robustness

– Level 3 : thermal testing / radiation test

– Level 4 : fully space qualified system

Thank you