Surveyor’s Travels
But just in case image processing
isn’t your cup of tea, the Surveyor
can also run autonomously using
interpreted C programming. Programs
are stored in Flash memory. There are
special robot commands and the
protocol is also available on the
website. The robot-specific commands
even include those for a “wander
mode” and a “swarm mode.” There
are entertaining videos on the website
that demonstrate these. And, as you
might have guessed, there is also
sample code that can be acquired
through the website, and — by
extension — the community of SRV-1Q
users that frequent it.
design to reality. The open source
mentality seems to have been truly
adopted by the folks at Surveyor, with
all of the shared software, hacks, and
enthusiasm for creating a better and
more interesting product.
The Surveyor Labs website
features a link to a video about the
Google Lunar X Prize that talks about
the new contest to send a robot to
the moon tasked with photographing
the Lunar Lander. With all of the
promise shown by the SRV-1Q and the
impressive community that is growing
around it, we wouldn’t be surprised to
see a robot like it end up on the
moon someday. SV
Special Thanks to
Zander Rose and Reason Bradley
of Inertia Labs and Howard Gordon
of Surveyor Labs.
Open Source
Opening Doors
Perhaps the most exciting things
about the SRV-1Q are the possibilities.
In the space of this article, we have
hardly even scratched the surface of
this bot. It can run autonomously, it
can archive the video it takes, you can
even get a bunch of SRV-1Qs together
to make a swarm. The bot can be
expanded with more sensors, and it
can even be given “stereo vision” with
the addition of another camera. Hacks
like stereo vision and other things that
score highly on the cool factor scale
are all shared on the Surveyor Labs
website, and a Robot User Forum
encourages hackers and hobbyists to
share their latest projects.
All of the possibilities are made
reachable because the bot is open
source. Not only can tinkerers mess
around with the source code, but
schematics and other diagrams of the
robot are also freely available. Users
can even download a Solidworks
3D model of the SRV-1Q from the
website so they can truly get an idea
of how this robot has progressed from
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