November 16, 2009

UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA

A team of students from UBC designed and built a robot based on a Miskin Double Bucket Scraper.

Construction in space

University of British Columbia robotics club to help build moon base

RICHARD GILBERT

staff writer

The only official Canadian team in a U.S. competition to help build a moon base with robotic excavator, was a group of engineering and computer science students from B.C.

The University of British Columbia (UBC) Thunderbirds Robotic Club entered the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Regolith Excavator Centennial Challenge at Ames Research Air Force Base in Mountain View, California last month.

In this competition, 24 teams designed and built robotic machines to excavate simulated lunar soil or regolith.

The robot driver was required to sit in a separate room, where they couldn’t see the vehicle.

“We did very well and finished off sixth in the event,” said John Meech, professor and director of the UBC Centre for Environmental Research in Minerals, Metals and Materials.

“The biggest challenge of the competition involved configuration issues with the network supplied by NASA to place a two-second delay between the moon and earth.”

During the competition, 19 of the 24 robots were tested in a box that was four meters square and about half a meter deep. The box contained eight tons of regolith.

To qualify for the $500,000 prize, a robot must dig up and dump at least 150 kg of regolith into a container in 30 minutes. The remotely controlled vehicles were required to contain their own power sources and weigh no more than 176 pounds.

“We suffered by having to sacrifice 12 minutes of our digging time to establish the communication link with the NASA server,” said Meech.

The UBC team overcame another challenge, when the vision or video system failed to configure properly. The operator did the digging using a scanning laser.

“Despite these difficulties, the MoonScraper was able to dig, carry, and climb the ramp delivering three loads to the collection box to accumulate over 60 kg (the team was officially accredited with 43 kg as the final cycle exceeded the time limit),” explained Meech.

UBC was one of nine teams that dug regolith and moved it into the collector box. Only six teams excavated significant amounts.

Paul’s Robotics team dug 440 kilos and was awarded $500,000 in prize money.

Paul Ventimiglia, an undergraduate robotics engineering student at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in Massachusetts, was the team’s leader.

The second place team, Terra Engineering of Gardena, California, dug 270 kgs and won $150,000. Third place went to Team Braundo of Rancho Palos Verdes, California, which dug 264 kgs and won $100,000.

University of British Columbia

UBC ROBOTICS TEAM

Front Row (L-R): Ian Phillips - UBC Comp.Sci., Amy Cheng, UBC Mining Grad., Miskin SR-1 MoonScraper, Taylor Cooper, UBC Eng.Phys. Back Row (L-R): John Meech, UBC Mining Professor, Josh Weinstein, UBC Cognitive Studies, Ivar Schoenmeyr, Aquatec Water Systems, CA, Dirk Van Zyl, UBC Mining Professor, Andre Wild, UBC Eng.Phys. George Sterling, UBC Eng.Phys.

The first place team designed, built, and programmed Moonraker 2.0.

It features a large number of constantly rotating scoops to collect the soil.

“Most of the designs used bucket conveyors to pick up the regolith and put it in another container,” explained Meech.

“Most of the robots were covered in a cloud of dust. The winning team dug over 400 kg, but you couldn’t see their robot during its run because of the incredible dust cloud.”

According to Meech, this type of technology wouldn’t work on the moon because there is less gravity and no atmosphere

“On the moon the robot must move as quietly as possible,” he said.

“A particle of dust takes a long time to settle and becomes a projectile.”

The UBC team designed and built a robot based on a Miskin Double Bucket Scraper, which has one bucket that digs in one direction and then closes, while the second bucket is lowered and then scrapes the surface in the other direction.

Meech said this technology is superior for moon operation.

The scraper can dig and haul 40 kilograms in a three minute cycle, without generating dust clouds.

Theoretically it could have moved 400 kg in 30 minutes.

However, as a result of the 12 minute delay, the team changed strategy at the last minute.

They completed three cycles in 18 minutes and deliberately held back on the length of the dig and its depth to ensure that some dust got into the collection box.

“The NASA officials and the Dean of Engineering at Stanford were very impressed with our robot - the smallest one in the competition,” said Meech.

“We put up the least amount of dust and we were told if they were going to award a prize for innovation and creativity it would go to us because our robot was closest to providing a practical solution to the moon-dust digging issue.”

At the competition, NASA engineers observed and evaluated a collection of working prototypes that would normally cost millions of dollars to create.

The innovations will be considered in future designs.

Why dig on the moon ?

NASA has three reasons for holding a competition to design a robot that can dig on the moon.

The first is to dig down to the bedrock and get a strong foundation for the construction of a lunar base.

The second is to pile the regolith and cover the top of the lunar base for insulation against radiation.

The third is to recover water, oxygen or high level helium from titanium dioxide.

Helium is the material of choice for nuclear fusion, which could be used to generate energy in fusion reactors on the moon or earth.

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