Lunar Pig
" What Tasks will the Robot do?
The robot collects rocks and other particles from the moon, analyzes them, and stores them in its storage using its robotic arm. The arm puts the samples in storage via a small hole beside the arm. There is a small room above the rover, where a researcher can sit and work. The room can be entered by climbing the ladder on the side of the rover. The ladder is beside the robotic arm and the sample hole. In the room, there are two tables. One contains a computer to work on, along with a telephone to communicate with scientists from Earth. The other is the researcher’s workstation, which contains books and tools. There is also a bowl on the table, and beneath it is a pipe, which connects to the vacuum in the storage area. The vacuum sucks up the rocks and particles and transfers them to the bowl on the workstation from where the researcher can further analyze and study those rocks. Above the room, there is a solar panel that collects energy, and an antenna, to send and receive signals from and to Earth. The transparent boxes with the stripes running across it are the windows. The only exception is the box right above the ladder, which is the door.
What Challenges/Opportunities is your Robot Tackling?
The robot tackles the challenge of relying 100% on Artificial Intelligence without any assistance from a human. To do that, we designed an automatic driving system in our lunar rover, which uses the ultrasonic sensors at the front of the rover to detect if there are any obstacles in front of the rover that the rover could potentially collide into, and turn to a different direction to not collide into the obstacle.
What Sensors will the Robot use to Help it Carry on its Tasks?
The robot uses two types of sensors and a camera to help it carry on its tasks. The two types of sensors are ultrasonic and infrared sensors. The robot uses the ultrasonic sensor to detect obstacles in front of it, so it would not collide with the obstacles. The infrared sensor helps the robot detect its surrounding environment. The robot also uses a camera to capture images of rocks on the moon, along with built-in software that analyzes the images captured by the camera.
What Decisions will the AI make to Help the Robot? What Actions does the Robot do when it makes those Decisions?
The robot would only pick up new types of rocks and will not pick up the same type of rock that has already been picked up in the past. To do that, the robot remembers every type of rock that it picked up. And whenever the camera detects a rock, the AI will decide whether to pick it up or not depending on if the robot already has the information about the rock or not. If the robot already has the information about the rock that has been detected, the robot will decide to ignore the rock and keep driving. If the robot detects a rock that it has never seen before and does not have information on it, the robot will drive toward the rock and pick it up with its robotic arm and store the appearance and the information of the rock in the database, so that the next time the robot spots the same rock, it would ignore it and keep driving to find a new rock.
Features of the Robot and Their Functions
- Antenna – Used to send and receive messages with people on Earth.
- Ultrasonic Sensor – Used for sensing obstacles to not collide with them.
- Front + Back Camera – Used to identify the different types of rocks.
- Robotic Arm – Used to grab rocks or other natural materials on the moon.
- Hole with a vacuum + Storage – The hole is connected to storage. It is used to store objects grabbed by the robotic arm.
- Ladders – Used to climb up to the control room
- Front Shield – Placed in front of the rover to block sand and dust.
- Infrared Sensor (Under the rover) – Used to detect the surrounding environment.
- Research room – Rocks in the storage would be sent to the research room so that astronauts would be able to research about the rocks that are collected by the rover.
- Telephone – Placed in the research room for connecting with people on Earth about facts of newly discovered rocks.
- Solar Panel – Used as a backup energy source in case the battery (primary energy source) runs out of power.
- Sand-proof wheels – Used for the movements of the rover. It is designed to be sand-proof.
- Battery – Used to power the rover.
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