T e n e r i f e ’ s f a v o u r i t e b r i t i s h w e e k ly n e w s p a p e r Issue 721 16 September - 22 September 2011
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Beam me up, Bridget! A BRITISH-DEVELOPED robot named Bridget, destined to `provide the knowledge for future missions to Mars, Mercury or the Moon, is currently being tested in Teide National Park.
The similarities between the floor of Teide and the surface of Mars have led engineers and scientists to opt for conducting the experiments in Tenerife. And Bridget, a star in “her” own right, has already been used to develop and test the locomotion, suspension and steering systems. For these field trials, the robot is being used to provide a platform to test cameras and image-processing software in advance of the European Space Agency’s ExoMars mission. She has met such space luminaries as Buzz Aldrin (the second man to set foot on the moon) and Stephen Hawking (physicist and cosmologist), and has also encountered bosom pals R2D2 from Star Wars and a Doctor Who Dalek! Astrium, who designed Bridget, are Europe’s top space company and renowned as leading the world in the design and manufacture of satellite systems. They are based in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, and have various offices around Europe. The company are playing a prominent role in the Teide project, ProVisG (Planetary Robotics Vision Ground Processing), and are actually hosting the event. Together with various European and American partners, they are experimenting with a number of systems integrated into the Bridget Rover robot, which also went through testing back in 2006 in the same location. The ProVisG project, funded by the European Commission, aims to further the development of optical instruments to take pictures of other planets with unprecedented accuracy. The testing is being concentrated on the robot’s ability to produce the pictures in just a few hours, as opposed to the present process, which usually takes weeks. Also, the robotic vehicle can move swiftly and independently, recognising the various ground obstacles and
enabling scientists to move rapidly from one place to another. Through the development work carried out on Bridget Rover, which is a prototype, the follow-on ExoMars Rover will be far more autonomous than current rovers, able to move even faster and select its own route to the next point of interest, making best use of the terrain. This will be a huge step forward for the exploration on planets because
it means that, once given the next target, the rover can make its own way there with no further control commands. This feature is particularly useful when signals or commands from Earth can sometimes take up to 20 minutes to get to Mars! The project team comprise space experts, scientists and engineers from all over Europe, with representation from the US as well. They are drawn
from academia, research institutions and industry and share a deep interest in the pursuit of space exploration. Astrium have based a 20-strong group from the various partners at La Oratova, and a spokesman said this week: “This project is important for the development of future manned missions, which may provide threedimensional images and animations of the places they will arrive at.” The field trials began in Teide National
Park on Monday and will continue until next Friday (23rd Sept). And you can actually follow Bridget’s progress by live webcam feeds via https://sites. google.com/site/bridgetrover/. Bridget, as you would expect, is a fascinating machine. To navigate and steer, she relies on stereoscopic cameras at the top of a two-metre mast, which allow her to see in 3D in much the same way as we do. An elevation model of the terrain is created from the images and fed into the navigation computer. Future rovers will also have an extra pair of cameras at the base of the mast, which are used for visual localisation. Bridget has six wheels, made entirely of metal since rubber is an organic material and, therefore, cannot be taken to another planet, particularly when searching for signs of life. The wheels have been engineered to behave like normal tyres, and the suspension system is designed to be able to negotiate slopes both parallel and perpendicular to the direction of travel. All six wheels are driven by independent electric motors, controlled by the central computer, but only the four corner wheels are steered. All six are steered in the follow-on vehicles, which will enable each wheel to be rolled forward one, two or three at a time to avoid sinking in the softest of sand or dust. Though Bridget is essentially in retirement now, handing over most of the development work to her “sons” Bradley and especially Bruno (the latest prototype), she is often wheeled out to provide a realistic test platform for the many instruments, cameras and computers being prepared for ExoMars and future robotic missions. Unlike Bridget, though, Bradley and Bruno are restricted in the equipment they can carry as their wheels and suspension are designed for operation on Mars itself, where gravity is one-third that of Earth. There are two main locations for the trials: the flat landscape of Llano de Ucanca and the rough terrain of Minas de San José. So, if you want to have a peep at one of Bridget’s final public appearances, here in Tenerife, click on https://sites.google.com/ site/bridgetrover/.