Lunar exploration has gained more and more traction from various sources recently. Each step forward is another towards having a permanent human presence on another body in the solar system. ESA took a more recent step with the completion of its Analog-1 robotics test, which took place successfully on the slopes of Mount Etna earlier this month.
Analog-1 has been a long-standing ESA effort to model what it would be like for a human operator to control a robot directly on the lunar surface while floating above it on the Gateway space station. Scheduled to launch no earlier than 2024 as part of the Artemis program, Gateway will serve as a base for many lunar exploration activities.
UT video about lunar rovers past and present.
Controlling a robot from such a distance is not easy and something that both robot designers and their operators have to get used to. Hence the development of the Analog-1 project. ESA began its efforts to develop a robotic interface system more than ten years ago and has been slowly improving its capabilities during that time. The recent test marks the culmination of that effort, and the space agency is justifiably proud of its success.
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There were several new aspects of this new test. One of the most obvious is that the operator and mission control personnel were physically about 23 kilometers away from the robot while guiding it. They were set up in separate hotel rooms meant to mimic the real environments they would be located in during a real mission. Additionally, system programmers introduced a one-second delay to simulate the delay Gateway operators would experience while driving a rover to the surface.
ESA infographic showing Analog-1 mission requirements. Credit – ESA
In addition, the robot designers implemented a haptic feedback system that allowed Thomas Reiter, one of the ESA astronauts, to “feel” what the robot was feeling with its actuator arm. But the “Interact” rover, which had an actuator arm and was used to collect samples, was just one of a team of robots, including a drone, a “centipede-like” Scout tracker and two light vehicle units (LRU ) month. , which look like miniaturized versions of the NASA rovers currently exploring Mars, and were designed by DLR, the German space agency.
Additional support was provided by a lander, which served as a communications center for the fleet of robots being tested. It was a good thing that there was such a wide variety of robots: navigating Etna’s analog lunar landscape proved tricky for Interact’s standard four-wheeled setup, but other locomotion techniques, such as moving Scout’s crawl. This difficulty led to a change in approach on the part of the robot’s programmers. They introduced a type of “assisted driving” feature for robot operators that allowed the driver to simply select where they wanted to go, and then the robot itself would find its way there using its own judgment.
Astronaut Thomas Reiter controls the Interact Rover, which is 23 km from his hotel. Credit – ESA
Features like this will be absolutely critical in future lunar missions, especially since driver fatigue could significantly affect how long a rover can remain operational. There are sure to be a lot more problems that will have to be overcome if the overall Artemis project is to succeed, not to mention getting the crew capsule out at some point. But for now, this part of robotic lunar exploration has taken a giant leap forward.
More information: ESA – Rover plus astronaut completes EtnaUT challenge – ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano will control a rover from spaceUT – Astronaut Scott Tingle was able to control a ground robot… from space.UT – Operating a rover in real time From a distance
Main image: Image of the Interact rover on the slopes of Etna. Credit – ESA
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