Quote:
Originally Posted by Coffeeism
Couldn't we put a ground plane underneath the regolith and plate the space in between the regolith with something conductive? Wouldn't the trailers then discharge regularly as they run around the field?
|
The problem appears to be that large charges build up on the robot frame. They have no path outside the robot. The Delrin wheels are a great insulator, so the charges can be thousands of volts different from the floor.
The electrical system floats near ground potential (from the last time it was grounded). It has no connection at all to the robot frame.
The charge on the robot accumulates until it finds a discharge path. This could be to ground, another reservoir like the Electrical system,or another robot. The spark ionizes the air, and the charges then equalize. After the spark ends, you may have two systems charged to high voltage.
I don't think that the exact mechanisms that are causing the problem(s) have been identified. But keeping the robot frame and floor close to the same potential would at least prevent the robot frame from building up a high voltage charge.