AGH students are working on a Mars rover
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It will have six wheels, gripper on the arm and chemical mini-lab. In 2013, a rover built by AGH students will take part in Mars vehicle competition on the Utah desert. It will be ready by October this year.
The rover is being built by members of the Scientific Club INTEGRA at AGH University of Science and Technology. The team is composed of about 30 people in several sections. The work of students is supported and supervised by Dr. Dariusz Marchewka and Dr. Paweł Piątek from the Department of Automation AGH.
The competition is open to rolling, walking, crawling vehicles, on wheels or tracks. The vehicle built by AGH students will move on six wheels, use a gripper on the arm, transmit images from a set of cameras, and it will be controlled by CPU, communicating wirelessly with the command centre.
Young designers are currently working on vehicle design, developing so-called communication protocols, considering a choice of engines, etc. Soon, the prototype will be built and tested.
"In the competition, the rover will have to perform four tasks: to find a lost astronaut and provide him with a first aid package, to determine the coordinates of several designated points, measure the voltage of solar cells, and finally to carry out biological tests: collect a soil sample, take it to base and analyse" - explained President of the Scientific Club INTEGRA Mateusz Bryła.
The rover will probably be equipped with chemical mini-lab, which it will use to examine collected soil samples. The vehicle will weigh 50 kilograms and its dimensions will not exceed one metre per side.
"We are going to build some parts of the Mars vehicle ourselves (undercarriage, gripper), some we buy from professional manufacturers (camera, motor, batteries). Today we have two ideas for power: either we apply new lithium-iron batteries, or a hydrogen fuel cell" - added the INTEGRA project team leader Bartosz Śmierciak.
The rover should be ready by mid-October this year. In 2013 the vehicle will start in the Mars vehicle competition University Rover Challenge (URC), organized every year by The Mars Society in the Utah desert in the U.S.
The event location was chosen for a reason. Conditions in the Utah desert are very similar to Martian landscape. Therefore, the Mars Society chose this place to build a prototype base, in which it organizes an annual competition of rovers constructed by students.
"We have a difficult task ahead. During the event, we will be sitting in a closed tent, and contact the rover only through its links and cameras. We therefore need to work on the problem of communication in the local terrain. Rover operation will be closely watched by the judges. Moreover, radio frequencies used to contact the robot cannot overlap with those used in the U.S., and possible flying components of the rover must comply with air traffic regulations in the United States..."- described Mateusz Bryła.
The designers estimate that the vehicle constructors requires a financial effort of PLN 17 thousand. Construction costs will be covered by the company ASTOR and the university.
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