successful run yesterday night

Our run yesterday night went pretty good: the "digger" robot reached the sample; it seems it was the only one of the teams that ran yesterday that managed this.

The overall task was tremendously difficult. The concept of two robots, one as communication relay and one for getting the sample worked very well. But getting to the sample was already a big challenge due to the environment conditions - very difficult terrain and very unstructured, especially as it is very dark. So, Soeren as our operator hard a hard time driving the two robots. Below some pictures that give an impression of the run.

It is all a matter of software now...

... let's see if all the robot software we have is running on the two "lunatic" robots

finally screwed up

Aren't they nice? :)

126 times drilled holes, put screws through, and tightened the nuts

improving the tracks

2 sets of aluminum plates mounted, still 82 to go

Lunatic 1 is alive...

The first robot is up and moving; see the attached movies. Number two has a broken motor cable but that is about to be replaced and both can start practicing together.

3D laserscanner and first digging mechanisms ready

A first simple digging mechanism is finally finished. Let us hope that the "sand" is indeed somewhere in the density range of 1 gr/ccm (which should already be pessimistic according to Wikipedia).

The rotating laser scanner for 3D perception over long ranges is now also finished.

onboard PC installed & running

The onboard PC's are now installed. The software that was developed on the old robots so far now has to put on them. Time for test drives tomorrow... :)