Servo - April 2009

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.