Preview of Dave's "Monster Truck on Mars"
 

Check out the drive train for the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) in action, courtesy the Planetary Society:

MSL is going to be HUGE!

Known as Scarecrow (due to it's lack of a brain), this full-size test model for the mobility system of MSL demonstrates it's ability to negotiate rugged terrain. The
"Monster Truck of Mars" - yet another reason why the 2007 Engelberger Robotics Award for Leadership was bestowed on Dave. So cool...

Re: Preview of Dave's "Monster Truck on Mars"
 

Wow! That is a beast! I wonder what the speed of it is.

Re: Preview of Dave's "Monster Truck on Mars"
 

SWEET

Re: Preview of Dave's "Monster Truck on Mars"
 

i want one :)

Re: Preview of Dave's "Monster Truck on Mars"
 

Nice wheels! ;)

Re: Preview of Dave's "Monster Truck on Mars"
 

<sarcasm>So, how are they getting this one to Mars? It's a BEAST!</sarcasm>
No, it truly is a beast, but NASA always finds a way to get these thing up there. I think we should have a FIRST competition to see who can drive through that kind of terrain the best and just have a full out race.:D I think we need a robot race.

Re: Preview of Dave's "Monster Truck on Mars"
 

[sarcasm]Only about .567 kph. The torque is amazing though![/sarcasm]

Re: Preview of Dave's "Monster Truck on Mars"
 

Yet another NASAbot with crab drive. I do believe NASA loves crab drive. I wonder what the weight/cost of that thing is and if we can get the drive train in under 75lbs/$3000...

Those wheels look beasty.

Re: Preview of Dave's "Monster Truck on Mars"
 

To be technical, depending on the situation, the rover can use any of several steering modes at any time: tank drive, crab/swerve drive, Ackerman drive, and probably one I'm forgetting. The steering system is built on a rocker-bogie suspension system, and the whole thing is a derivative of the systems used on both the Mars Pathfinder and Mars Exploration Rover programs.

EDIT: See here for info on the MER drive system.
EDIT 2: Oh yeah, the one I forgot! To add to the list of modes of steering, the rovers also have a pre-programmed turn-in-place routine, as evidenced here.
EDIT 3: Hey, sorry for all the edits, but check out the rover's right front wheel in the picture I just posted. Notice the lettering hidden in the tread? That's clever.

Re: Preview of Dave's "Monster Truck on Mars"
 

Thanks for the clarification. I'm surprised we havne't seen a rocker-bogie-type drivetrain in FIRST yet, or at least I haven't in the couple of years I've done FIRST.

edit - Well, maybe now that I think about how much force other robots could impact upon your drive train....maybe I'm not so surprised any more...

Re: Preview of Dave's "Monster Truck on Mars"
 

I would be happy just to see it.
To watch it.

Re: Preview of Dave's "Monster Truck on Mars"
 

That thing is amazing!
But I think those cross-eye stereo images are even more amazing!:yikes:

Re: Preview of Dave's "Monster Truck on Mars"
 

A fair portion of the avionics for MSL are being developed in my group, including the controlller for the Sky Crane.

-Kevin

Re: Preview of Dave's "Monster Truck on Mars"
 

That is so cool! I think the retrorocket will turn out to be one of man's greatest inventions. I think I'll kind of miss the giant inflatable bouncing balls that landed Pathfinder and the MERs, through.

Re: Preview of Dave's "Monster Truck on Mars"
 

I remember seeing a preview of the Sky Crane, but the video is incredible. Now you just have to convince the science people to let you land close enough to one of the MER fellas that they can get a picture of the landing. Will it be drop tested before the big trip?

Re: Preview of Dave's "Monster Truck on Mars"
 

There will be lots of modeling, simulation, and bench testing of the various components, but I'm not sure if there will be a full-up drop test of the sky crane itself. I suspect Dave attended that portion of the Critical Design Review, so you might ask him for a more definitive answer.

-Kevin

Re: Preview of Dave's "Monster Truck on Mars"
 

Very impressive. Will it be more controllable than the MER on the landing?

Re: Preview of Dave's "Monster Truck on Mars"
 

Yes, we'll have more control, but we're still not to the point where we can drop a lander right where we want to. There is a program based at JSC called ALHAT (Autonomous Landing and Hazard Avoidance Technology) that is looking at ways to autonomously land a spacecraft fairly close to a pre-determined location. One of the problems that my group is working on (with folks at Goddard) is providing the computational throughput needed to calculate a safe path to the landing area. Looking at the current algorithms, we think we'll need a computer(s) that can provide a sustained throughput of a few hundred billion calculations per second, which is a few orders of magnitude faster than current flight-qualified CPUs.

-Kevin

Re: Preview of Dave's "Monster Truck on Mars"
 

Apparently, the speed is limited by the rocker boogie suspension. At least that's what the article on wikipedia says about rocker boogie. It would be really neat if we could get it going faster.

Re: Preview of Dave's "Monster Truck on Mars"
 

Yeah but can it crash a car?
Jump 10 feet in the air?
Or float on a lake?

I don't think Big Foot has anything to worry about :D