Archive: July 2022

The first panoramic picture!

After several hours of testing and learning how to code using OpenCV, the imager was finally able to take pictures ad panoramic pictures using stitched photos. This is possible by using an alternate between Imager rotation and camera shutter opening and closing. Mimas then processes the photos and detects common features and stitches them together. A practical Python script was made to control the mast rotation and camera operations. Also, a temperature system is connected to the structure and wired to the Raspberry Pi4.

  • [Hours of work: 30h]
  • [People involved: Giorgio]

Building the mast!

Commonly referred to as the "Imager", the mast is a tower-shaped component that elevates key camera systems and sensors, giving the rover a human-scale perspective on its environment. The first version of its structure was assembled, however, the design is not stable and the rotation mechanisms for the pan and tilt are not working smoothly. A webcam is positioned on top to start experimenting with OpenCV for photo capturing and image stitching.

  • [Hours of work: 12h]
  • [People involved: Giorgio]

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The next step is...

Using junk components of a CCTV system, several tests were performed with the aim to control a built-in couple of stepper motors. A first draft of the code to control them independently using variables given by the user is ready and is working correctly. The next step is to build a working "camera tower" using this system to rotate the camera along two axes.

  • [Hours of work: 5h]
  • [People involved: Giorgio]

Building a wheel.

With a precise design of the final look of the wheels ready, materials for building it were purchased and assembled. The structure is composed of: 1x stainless steel cylinder for the outer frame, 4x "U" shaped stainless steel holed brackets custom bent, 4x "L" shaped stainless steel brackets. In addition, several nuts and bolts were used to make the structure strong and flexible, ready to be adjusted, if necessary, in the future. The structure of the wheel, however, is far from being completed, since it will require a cover of polyurethane rubber to protect the metal and ensure the rover has a better grip on outdoor terrains.

  • [Hours of work: 3h]
  • [People involved: Giorgio]

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Designing a Mars Rover.

To design Mimas, two NASA/JPL Mars Rovers were taken as inspiration: Curiosity and Perseverance. They are both autonomous vehicles for planetary exploration, landed on Mars respectively in 2012 and 2021. On both rovers, the Rocker Bogie suspension system was implemented to ensure safe driving even when traversing a rough surface, covered by rocks and with different terrain compositions. A first draft of the structure was modelled in 3D using Blender, however, this design may undercome several improvements in the future. In addition, materials to assemble one of the wheels (one out of six) were purchased.

  • [Hours of work: 16h]
  • [People involved: Giorgio]

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Raspberry Pi 4 configuration.

The first step to transit from the RC-VSTB to Mimas, the mars rover model prototyped for this Honours Project, was to update from a Raspberry Pi 1 to a Raspberry Pi 4 (with 8 GB of RAM) This process required a relatively small amount of time, however, particular attention was made to keeping the device as light and smooth as possible, reducing the installed libraries to what is strictly necessary.

  • [Hours of work: 2h]
  • [People involved: Giorgio]