the ESA Lunar Robotics Challenge that
was first conducted on the island of
Tenerife in the Canary Islands off the
coast of Africa. The pumice landscape
of Minas de San Jose within Tenerife’s
Teide National Park was an excellent
stand-in for a stark lunar landscape.
Operating from a trailer situated
2 km up the side of the mountain,
various teams controlled their rovers
to descend a steep 40° slope down a
crater to grab a 100 gram sample of
specially selected soil and return it
back up the slope — in the dark. All
of the competing rovers had to be a
specific size, weight, and could not
exceed a set power consumption.
Considering that this was actually
Earth, the contest was further
complicated by rain and clouds.
The German rover CESAR won
the competition in much the same
manner as many robotic competitions
— it was the only one that actually
completed the course. The three-wheeled rover shown in Figure 10
gained the acronym from Crater
Exploration and SAmple Return.
Though situated 2,000 km from the
mainland, the trailer — and thus the
competing rovers — were in constant
communication with the ESA Telecom
Directorate through satellite ground
stations and data links. As with
most robotic contests operating in
adverse conditions, many of the eight
competing teams faced mechanical,
software, and other problems.
manipulator, remarkably similar
to the original Canadarm used
on the Space Shuttle. It is
designed to work with the new
Russian airlock to transfer small
payloads into and out of the
International Space Station,
thus reducing the astronaut’s
EVA activities. Another prime
use will be the positioning of a
cosmonaut (astronaut) for
operations on the external
locations of the Space Station.
The ERA manipulator
system consists of two end
effectors (to hold tools and
payloads), two wrist joints, two
carbon fiber cylindrical ‘limbs,’
FIGURE 10.
ERA: The European
Robotic Arm
The ESA has worked on a design
for a space robotic servicing system
for many years, and typical of very
expensive projects, it has been
delayed and mission uses have
changed. Called the ERA and built by
Fokker Space, the European Robotic
Arm will be used in the assembly and
servicing of the Russian segment of
the International Space Station called
the Russian Multipurpose Laboratory
Module. It is expected to be launched
in late 2011 on a Russian Proton
booster from the Baikonur
Cosmodrome.
Figure 11 shows the ERA robotic
FIGURE 11.
SERVO 04.2009
79