‘Lunar Rover Challenge’ will be a technical event that will be held at Shaastra-annual technological festival of IIT Madras, in month of january. Top 5 teams will get a prize of 1 lakh and the winning team will get Google Lunar X Prize in April.
Lunar Rover Challenge
The teams were asked to come up with a concept for a lunar rover which can descend from the 45 ramp of a lunar shuttle and negotiate the rough and bumpy terrain of the moon. The robot should be designed in a way that it can manoeuvre the craters on the moon. With the safety light switched on, it has to cover a distance of 500 metres and send back real time updates like pictures and videos to the control room on earth.
Preliminary Round
In preliminary round of ‘Lunar Rover challenge’ that was held on Sunday, 38 teams presented their robotic prototypes. One of the most interesting concepts was that of the robot with caterpillar legs, said MS Sivakumar, professor of applied mechanics, IITM. “The concept was similar to the natural motion of an insect which lifts up its body on losing balance. The other innovative ideas were the four legged robot and the one with a C-shaped leg.”
“These robots can climb on any surface and move to any side,” said former marine engineer H P Biswas.
From Chennai, the preliminary round will go to Mumbai and Delhi and the selected teams will present their rovers at Shaastra to be held from January 4 to 7.
No comments:
Post a Comment