EUROBOT Ground Prototype

Function

Subcontractor of  GMV

Contact Information

Description

In July 2008 the European Space Agency began to develop a new project called EUROBOT Ground Prototype (EGP). EUROBOT is a man-high, three-armed robot designed to handle or help in routine tasks currently undertaken by astronauts. One possible use might be to help astronauts during extravehicular activity (EVAs), more commonly known as space walks.

After an open tender, ESA awarded the EGP project to a Consortium headed by Thales Alenia Space (Italy). Within the framework of this ambitious project Joanneum Research, as subcontractor of GMV, is responsible for the artificial vision system. GMV will take the lead in developing the EGP-Rover mobility platform, the Federal Institute of Technology (ETHZ, Switzerland) as another GMV subcontractor will develop the rover type locomotion platform.

In this new stage the European Space Agency is looking more closely at the "centaur" concept, involving a two-armed articulated robot mounted on a rover type mobile platform. The resulting EGP-Rover system has to be autonomous and hence capable of navigating over a Mars- or moon-type surface to any point ordered from earth or obeying a verbal order from the astronaut. It therefore needs a stereotypical vision system formed by two high-resolution cameras on a movable mast capable of taking pictures through 360º and building up maps of the area covered by the rover.

All this is done by means of a 400 Kg rover platform capable of carrying a 180 Kg robot and a 150 Kg payload. In addition, the system is capable of transporting 150 Kg of space-suited astronaut. This ads up to a total weight of 880 Kg in movement at a walking-type speed of 4-5 Km/h. It will therefore be fitted with powerful motors with 200 Nm of maximum torque.

As brain of the rover system GMV will develop the guidance, navigation and control (GNC) modules, which seeks the best trajectory between two points, skirting obstacles and optimizing travel time, based on a digital elevation model (DEM) and hazard map provided by the JR vision system.

Hardware related tasks performed by Joanneum Research:

• Rover Vision System Design
• Hardware integration (Moveable Mast (Pan-Tilt Unit) & Cameras)
• Rover Vision System Calibration

Software related tasks performed by Joanneum Research:

• Processing commands from the Guidance, Navigation, Control (GNC) Modul
• Stereo – based Digital Elevation Model (DEM) generation 360° around the EGP
• Hazard and slope mapping in real-time, based on low resolution stereovision
• Update of Rover position & orientation based on subsequent images
• Tracking and on-line localization of the Astronaut in the vicinity of the rover

Project Duration

 2008 - 2009

Main Partners

• Thales Alenia Space Italy http://www.thalesaleniaspace.com
• Dutch Space http://www.dutchspace.nl/
• GMV http://gmv.com
• Sener http://www.sener.es
• Selex Galileo http://www.selex-sas.com
• ETH Zürich Autonomous Systems Lab http://www.asl.ethz.ch/research/index

Funding

•  ESA http://www.esa.int
  

Figure 1: 3D model of the Eurobot Ground Prototype (Credits:ETH Zürich/Thales Alenia Space Italy/GMV)

Figure 2: 3D Model of the Eurobot Ground Prototype placed in a DEM acquired & processed by the Rover Vision System (Rover Model: Thales Alenia Space Italy, DEM: Joanneum Research) 

Figure 3: Hazard Map (white areas)