EEVblog #886 - Audi Lunar Quattro Moon Rover

[EEVblog]

Dave talks to Karsten Becker from PT Scientists, head of electronics development for the Audi Quattro Lunar Rover that will land at the Apollo 17 landing site on the moon in 2017
It is front runner in the Google Lunar X-Prize

[Barny]

That was very interesting.

I can't wait to hear more details about the rover.

[RogerRowland]

Don't turn it on ........ take it apart!

[bitwelder]

Don't turn it on ........ take it apart! send it to Mars!

[hamdi.tn]

i like when he  say .. we don't care about the money 
i would like to be on a project and project manager / Clients say : do what it take we don't care about the money !
we work our ass of to save 1/100 of a cent on a bloody resistor xD

[lapm]

Still waiting teardown video...  I mean you cant have something like that in Daves lab and not do teardown...

[LabSpokane]

Dave, any mention of why the wheels are so small?  I realize the target distance is 500m or something like that, but the limitations of the small wheel diameter are immediately obvious.

[bitwelder]

Engineering question, as in the video they talked about how the first 'shoebox' model wasn't good enough: how do the various factors (energy produced by the solar cells, efficiency of the motors, chassis weight, etc.) scale with the size of the rover getting bigger?
I suppose the top size (and weight) is limited by the fact that the vehicle has to be transported on a rocket, but otherwise the bigger the better?

[Don Hills]

Dave, any mention of why the wheels are so small?  I realize the target distance is 500m or something like that, but the limitations of the small wheel diameter are immediately obvious.

Why would they have to be larger?

[LabSpokane]

Dave, any mention of why the wheels are so small?  I realize the target distance is 500m or something like that, but the limitations of the small wheel diameter are immediately obvious.

Why would they have to be larger?

Moon rocks.  If a street curbs stop it cold, they may want the wheels larger and more compliant before heading to the moon.

[Paul Moir]

  If a street curbs stop it cold, they may want the wheels larger and more compliant before heading to the moon.

Maybe less of a problem in 1/6th gravity?  While the tangent problem is there, perhaps you can get enough grip on the rear wheels to allow the front ones to crawl up?
I'm imagining a rocket scientist sighing and saying, "Yes, of course we thought of this.  It was the first thing we thought about in fact."

[LabSpokane]

I'm imagining a rocket scientist sighing and saying, "Yes, of course we thought of this.  It was the first thing we thought about in fact."

I thought that too, until I saw the gaping holes in the wheels in the Mars Science Laboratory.  The Lunokhod rover had 8 cleated wheels and had problems with getting stuck on the moon. 

And I know that the other rovers are much, MUCH heavier and that this one is a featherweight.  I was still surprised to see the rover not be able to clear a curb. 

[EEVblog]

Moon rocks.  If a street curbs stop it cold, they may want the wheels larger and more compliant before heading to the moon.

Why. The Apollo 17 landing site it 95% flat-ish, and they can see where they are going in real time.
I'm sure they have studied all the photos closely, and they have actually spoken to Gene Cernan & Harrison Schmitt who have actually been there.

http://www.lpi.usra.edu/resources/apollopanoramas/

[Fungus]

Why would they have to be larger?

Moon rocks.  If a street curbs stop it cold, they may want the wheels larger and more compliant before heading to the moon.

How big is "big enough"? 

Normally they'd simply avoid the rocks. They don't just drive in a straight line towards the destination and hope for the best, they carefully plan every cm of travel.

[Roboshack]

You got to give them points for style.

[Kleinstein]

The main reason for a minimum size, and why larger is better is the radio link back to earth. They need a certain amount of power and a minimum size of the antenna. A bigger antenna might save on the power, but that is just shifting size form solar cells to antenna or back.

They might save on the "video" bandwidth, just like with the mars rovers. On mars it's the delay that makes real time control from video impossible. The same should work on the moon too - so even 1 frame per minute might allow driving, just slower, and with more intelligence in the rover itself.

For the wheels - larger wheels add weight and make the rover higher, as in this type of construction the wheals are really below the vehicle.

[CosPhi]

Maybe some remember .. I wrote a post about this team already one year ago.

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/fly-to-the-moon/msg579695/#msg579695

Carsten did talk about the project on the Chaos Computer Congress in germany.

Worth to watch ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEuVlr4ihs8&feature=youtu.be   

Good luck for all teams anyway 

[tvtv]

The Audi Lunar Quattro Moon Rover appears in official frailer of Alien: Covenant: https://youtu.be/svnAD0TApb8?t=31. Is this a news or everybody already knows that?

[Nobody2]

I believe they failed their next milestone (getting on a launch in time), which is sad.
Does anyone know if they plan to continue regardless? I can't seem to find a news section on their webpage.