The ESA Lunar Robotics Challenge: Simulating Operations at the Lunar South Pole
Felipe A. W. Belo, Andreas Birk, Christopher Brunskill, Frank Kirchner, Vaios Lappas, C. David Remy, Stefano Rocella, Claudio Rossi, Antti Tikanmäki, Gianfranco Visentin
In Journal of Field Robotics, John Wiley & Sons, volume o.A., pages ---, 2011.
Abstract
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In 2008, the European Space Agency challenged Universities to design, develop and test tele-operated robotic systems for a soil-sampling mission in a simulated lunar crater-like environment. Eight teams participated and developed a wide range of engineering solutions that addressed the various technical and operational challenges posed by the unfavourable terrain and harsh environment. The robotic concepts developed by the teams are presented and evaluated in this paper. We highlight operational and technical issues that the teams experienced during an intensive eight-days field campaign, report on design solutions that were adopted to assist in operating a robotic system in a lunar environment and describe the lesson learned through participation in such a field testing event.
Keywords
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Planetary robotics, exploration