Researchers at the University of Bristol have made significant progress in developing teleoperated robots for collecting lunar dust.
Robot demonstration. Image Credit: Joe Louca
The team finished a sample collection operation by replicating the simulation's activities using a virtual simulation that communicated with a physical robot. They accomplished this without using actual camera streams by merely monitoring the simulation, which suggests that this technique would be especially helpful for delayed teleoperation on the Moon.
This decade has seen a surge in lunar lander missions, and several public and private organizations are currently investigating the most effective ways to extract important resources, such as water and oxygen, from easily accessible minerals like lunar regolith (moon dust).
Since regolith must initially be gathered from the Moon's surface, treating it remotely will be a crucial part of these operations. Beyond this, working with moon dust is difficult. It will be handled under lower gravity and is abrasive and sticky.
One option could be to have astronauts use this simulation to prepare for upcoming lunar exploration missions. We can adjust how strong gravity is in this model, and provide haptic feedback, so we could give astronauts a sense of how Moon dust would feel and behave in lunar conditions which has a sixth of the gravitational pull of the Earth’s. This simulation could also help us to operate lunar robots remotely from Earth, avoiding the problem of signal delays.
Joe Louca, Lead Author, School of Engineering Mathematics and Technology, University of Bristol
Using a virtual model of regolith can also lower entry hurdles for those interested in creating lunar robots. Those working on lunar robots might utilize this simulation to test their systems in advance without having to purchase costly simulants (artificial dust that has the same characteristics as regolith) or have access to facilities.
The researchers will now explore how people react to this approach when managing a robot that is delayed by a few seconds. Even technically sound human-operated systems may still need to overcome non-technical obstacles, such as whether a person trusts the system's ability to function.
The model predicted the outcome of a regolith simulant scooping task with sufficient accuracy to be considered effective and trustworthy 100% and 92.5% of the time. In the next decade we are going to see several crewed and uncrewed missions to the Moon, such as NASA’s Artemis program and China’s Chang’e program. This simulation could be a valuable tool to support preparation or operation for these missions.
Joe Louca, Lead Author, School of Engineering Mathematics and Technology, University of Bristol
The testing was conducted at the European Space Agency’s European Centre for Space Applications and Telecommunications site in Harwell.