Curiosity Inspired Long Range Remote Vehicle - a project I want to get OCUK started on.

[Combat squirrel]

Hi everyone !! *PLEASE READ THIS*

THIS IS AN EDIT OF THE OP, THIS POST IS NOW WHERE YOU FIND INFO TO SIGN UP FOR OCUK REMOTE VEHICLE

Ok, ive made a Google docs spread sheet with requirements, volunteers and kind donators to the project.

People interested or have already put your name down:

1) Go on the document and add your skills, self-defined project role, email and if you like (optional) your real 1st name only.
2) Those that already have volunteered I’ve done my best to add your skills already but add them/edit them.
3) If you would like to donate to the cause please add your OCUK name and donation amount
4) I will discuss with everyone what the best way is to hold the funds and use them to buy components for the project

Im thinking for donators we will add there name/OCUK username to the vehicle or something similar? Like small writing of each name on it as a thank you to the people that will make it possible.

I also have an excel copy of the table should something happen that messes up this google table, but please make every effort to maintain the google docs table properly

It has three tables on the spreadsheet - name list - kind donators - rover requirements

Link here:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AgR462RLR9badEhkQUhscEI1SndGSXZVVmNtNmhuYlE

Thank you !!!!



*PLEASE READ THIS*

 

[Combat squirrel]

Ha ok jokes aside most people at 1km altitude are not chavs and like I say I know it’s a risk but im 99% sure it will be fine.

For testing I have a friend who literally lives in the mountains and could use a section of their land to try it all out on , or if comes down to it just use it on there land.

 

[Combat squirrel]

Glad to see lots of interest

And look already !! loads of useful info

Shall I put names down of interested people ?

 

[Combat squirrel]

Over that kind of terrain I would plan around a tracked vehicle, you can get RC tanks easily but they do cost a bit more.

Used to play around quite a bit with off road 4x4's a while ago and they aren't fantastic through some types of terrain like tall grasses etc and can get bogged, you also want something (imho) that is fairly slow due to the nature of how it will be used.

Keeping it charged may also be fun.


check out fishpi.org as well.

Defo agree, in my mind it would move as fast as MSL. Maybe a few CM to a foot or so per day. I intend it to be as close a possible rover in terms of speed and cameras as MSL, of course not the scientific instruments, they would go as far as an advanced weather station perhaps (it would be a fun analogy to landing a rover on Titan for example, lots of cold, wind and rain to contend with – not -170c of course, but still well below freezing hopefully)

Hope this idea is cool

 

[Combat squirrel]

Put me down but being in Aus I'm out of the time zone to be really useful. I do have some idea with where to get stuff though.

Cool will do, expertise is just as useful as building something, in fact more so.

thinking about it, a tracked system would be the way to gofor ease of programming. electronic compass and just have it turn until the new vector matches the required. you would also need anti-rollover measures in place.

charging would be a chore, maybe taking a few days. you would have to work out a way to deploy a solar array. but its not toooo difficult.

Yeah the more I think about it, im thinking a wind turbine would be the way to go, its ALWAYS blowing a strong gale in Snowdonia – also it will work at night. Anti-roll also important for wind power, but id also want to sit it low/wide as I could, similar to the Mars rover. Interestingly here is where it will get very interesting and a significant design change to MSL will be. There it has almost no atmosphere to contend with, here it’s our main power source,lol.

 

[Combat squirrel]

Cool I guess we will have to figure out what we need to know, I think the main jobs will be:

1) Hardware and electrical engineers
2) Software programmers – raspberry pi geniuses (possibly Atom boards?)
3) Software and radio techs for long distance radio control
4) Weather station and scientific payload bods
5) Cad designers – theoretical mathematicians and physicists ?


Anything else? Thinking design it online with shared folders and input until we have everything down to the T and then build it to exact specification – will take many weeks of designing I think but at least everyone can be involved

 

[Combat squirrel]

I have absolutely no technical expertise or advice to give on something such as this.

I will however, be prepared to donate £25 to the cost of something for the project as long as the vehicle has a sticker of some sort on it that says 'Lucy Is Cool'.

Exactly what I was thinking

Maybe a trusted mod could hold an account for everyone to donate to and then that money be used for parts.

I thought of buying 2 IP cameras infra red, £60, full swivel Pan and tilt cams as well.

I guess were looking at a few hundred to build it.

£90 for say 3 cams
£35 rasperry pi
£200 wheels, drives, elec motors
£150 mini wind turbine or make one ourselfs
£100 misc
£100 shell materials

Not millions but a little.

Maybe OCUK would sponsor us for some of it

 

[Combat squirrel]

Great responses guys, really chuffed with the enthusiasm.

To whoever wrote above that I under estimated it, not at all, but I am a person who strongly believes anything can be done if anyone puts there mind to it, like J Lovell said, it's not a miracle we went to the moon, we just decided to go.


Anyways tomorrow I shall draw up a table of names, and expertise, also welcome are people who cant contribute much accept bags of enthusiasm - this is an awesome trait that's the 1st thing I always look for

Just so everyone knows I'm willing to donate a fairly large chunk of money to this, few hundred at least. My expertise are general tech know how (can pretty much build anything without sounding to dodgy ), degrees in ocean science and masters in I.T. with AI. (finished 4 Years ago worked in medical since and now IT systems analyst)

In my free time I'm an utter space addict, photographer and tech nerd, often found dreaming up new and interesting ways to throw kerbonauts about their virtual universe, taking many photos or messing around on my in home tech project (full home automation) , for example just finished a 3 month über computer network in my house with a main home server on redundant and primary raid 5 arrays all backed up to a zfs duel redundancy main system as well as full home CCTV systems and weather monitoring solutions (maybe sounds crazy but I love putting tech together and making it work ! )

So yeah thats a little about me so I am reasonably ok with concept and engineering tech stuff but hardcore programmers, techs, electrical, design and dreamers most welcome for sure!

If anyone is interested this is the 1st of many projects I have planned, this seems a reasonable starting point to me, achievable but not easy.

On the side to this I am also designing up rocket systems, and take great interest in other model rocketers around the world.


Anyways bit of background there, will make the list of people available tomorrow, all Sound good people ?

 

[Combat squirrel]

May I suggest that when this gets going you ask the mods to set up a sub-forum for us to collaborate and have it set to invite only ie. only those working on the project may view it (and the mods of course so that they can ensure we're not trying to take over the world).

Awesome idea, I will think about drawing up a plan that maybe OCUK could donate a small amount so the car can carry OCUK's logo's and plans

This sounds like brilliant fun!!
I have absolutely zero to offer in the way of knowledge or skills

I'll keep an eye on it, looks like you'll need donations to make this realistic, so once it looks like it's actually going ahead and not just a pipe dream I'll be happy to chuck £20 at it

Awesome stuff

Awww, we're not taking over the world?

*Unsubscribed

Maybe a field, somewhere in the middle of no where





OK, so mental day at work, but im working on the table now !!

Also taking on board peoples comments and the fact I live in a pretty good place in the UK for all terrain challenges , do we want to:

(My ideas are all based around activities related to or are analogous to space travel / exploration stuff)

1) Go ahead with the remote rover as originally planned (AKA Mars rover)

2) Build a remote submarine with similar ability to the rover, i.e. explore and report back (AKA really is 'another world' and much more 'alien' than an outdoor environment - a water rover that will fly over the seabed exploring the sea floor and water column - also for this due to my history I can get it launched from an ocean going vessel a couple miles out at sea - the challenge of course with this is signal degradation - its dammed hard to maintain a good signal but also much harder to think of a power source that will last)

3) Build an atmospheric research balloon - amazing near space for real stuff here, however, its been done a million times - still awesome however

4) Build a long range sub orbital rocket, similar to the balloon idea but more awesome and much higher altitudes - only issues here are arranging air space to launch it and fly it above 100km - i believe however if we can launch it from open water, we don't need to seek permission from anyone.




And maybe for project 2 ......... I want to build a very very very long range remote rover, and put it in the arctic ice cap - now that really is another planet.



Your thoughts ?

 

[Combat squirrel]

all sound interesting, amphibious arctic rover i wonder how much power satellite comms will take?.

Only really need that for the 2nd project, lets get this one done 1st

UHF should cover a reasonable distance, im thinking of using long range CB radios, when i were a kid we could talk to people in other countries on them so plenty range.

Dude, are you sitting in a large secret lair surrounded by minions, with a fluffy white cat on your lap?!?

HOW YOU KNOWS, come out now, ill find u

 

[Combat squirrel]

I have a mathematics degree, let me know when you've got problems to solve

I design radio antennas for a living, mostly in the UHF and microwave frequencies. I reckon you'll end up in the 2.4 GHz band. You'll want a nice high-gain directional antenna for the base station and a fairly simple omnidirectional antenna on the car.

Your assistance would be most awesome

I cant believe I'm saying this....
But can we make a project brief/specification, outlining the requirements of the project, such as requirements.

Congratulations I now feel Dirty...

From Your OP, I can Gather That you want the following:
Vehicle:
* Off Road Capable,
* Able to a carry Both electronics and charging equipment (solar)

Control Systems;
Full Motor Control? Independent steering? or 2wd front steering?
Cameras able to stream live video and audio
*Most likely easiest to do with WiFi and I.P. Cameras.
* Remote control Over Long rang will have to be via 3g technology as rf, Would require rediculus amounts of power and the bands needed will either cost money or be illegal to use.

Pretty sure a arduino could handle the control of the rover, all we would need is a bluetooth enabled android phone and a custom app.

Maybe Something Like this:
http://www.robotshop.com/productinfo.aspx?pc=rb-rbo-33

With a mobile phone attached. Could probably cover the top in solar panels and have it trickle charge the battery system.

Couple of my own ideas

• Have a non-static camera mounted on a armature controlled by a step motor.
• Have Rover GPS Enabled, Which Can be overlaid Onto google maps or similar.
• Temperature, altitude, etc logger available on line.
• buoyancy and water proofing as it will be operating in north wales...

If this actually goes ahead, I'm in. Background in electronics, pic/plc programming, instrumentation and frigging.

lol why feel dirty ?

I like all your ideas, maybe we could have both solar and wind power (im thinking wind power if its in the mountains as its constantly windy and will get a good amount of power from that)

What's everyone's considerations for the above ideas? Or are we best starting with the remote car to have a good base to learn from and sort a team out ?


EDIT: Also for any non aqua based machines I want to replicate Curiosities transparent lens caps idea...i.e. we can control them from our interface at home, keeping dust off is the main thing, it will also act as a rain cover if half open.

 

[Combat squirrel]

you want a rock crawler something like a bigger

battery life is going to be a huge problem though

Ha awesome stuff, however they are moving about 100x faster than this one will move , im thinking 6 wheel design, more or less exactly the same speed as Curiosity goes at (scaled) ... i.e. no one is going to be around to help move it if it gets stuck.

Part of the fun once completed will be planning every move from the data we get from the cams on board to move the vehicle successfully to a new location.

I we go down the wind turbine route, can we make sure its one that operates in teh horizontal plane, as its more efficent, wont need to be targeted and wont effect the centre of gravity unlike a vertical plane wind turbine.
Example

Because in work I try to avoid the project briefings and specification draw ups like the plague

If it was my individual project, i'd make it a Tracked rover, due to the type of terrain it will encounter, also because it allows some form of propulsion through puddles and thick mud.
I would have the Tracks sitting proud of the body work, so that it can operate even if flipped, only issue is fitting a wind turbine and rotatable camera.
I would run the device of a phone internet connection because rf, has a short legal range, and licences for long powerful ranged systems are expensive.
I would run the whole system using a Arduino PIC bluetooth enabled board, because there cheap, low voltage/power draw, Customisable and realitvely shock proof.

but thats just my two cents, most likely someone on here has a better idea as I haven't a large amount of experiences with RF gear.

Yeah for sure I understand your concerns ! I hate corporate work briefings BS, but as this is an online collaboration we will have to meet up in discussion rooms and stuff to throw ideas around and stuff and discuss everyones ideas - it can be fun as well! lol

Also thinking we will have to go the phone route, but we will have to put a massive antenna on the phone to assure we get good signal.

 

[Combat squirrel]

All valid input which I welcome, for sure its going to go through a few changes with the project and plans, but thats what this is, to find out how these things come together and learn from the process as well as gain in technical knowledge.

GreatWaves, good input, however I will do some more research on the wind turbine idea, purely to learn but also to see the potential power output, I dont believe it will put massive problems in the design of the rover, of course I never said it had to look pretty just be practical , but even a small input to trickle charge batteries 24 hours per day is a big up on just solar power.

Also solar power in snowdonia is almost non existent especially in winter, so we need another source of power all year round, the only viable technical option for that is wind power.

Of course MSL is limited on its power, BUT that is made a lot easier by a plutonium power source with a 70-90 year lifetime , also they are trying to run 10's (20-30?) scientific instruments, 22 cameras, as well as transmit data 350 million miles - or orbital space craft. Of course they have 'awesome' mobile power with nuclear power sources, but given the requirements of instruments and transmission power i can see how it runs out fast.

Anyways there will be solar but I think that will be secondary, other than wind, whats the options?.......an extreme option could be fuel cells, but thats very ott.

I sort of see how it could be pie in the sky slyfox but im honestly going to do it with hopefully as many interested parties as possible, even if it takes me 5 years im going to put something together

Thanks guys

 

[Combat squirrel]

Hi everyone !!

Ok, ive made a Google docs spread sheet with requirements, volunteers and kind donators to the project.

People interested or have already put your name down:

1) Go on the document and add your skills, self-defined project role, email and if you like (optional) your real 1st name only.
2) Those that already have volunteered I’ve done my best to add your skills already but add them/edit them.
3) If you would like to donate to the cause please add your OCUK name and donation amount
4) I will discuss with everyone what the best way is to hold the funds and use them to buy components for the project

Im thinking for donators we will add there name/OCUK username to the vehicle or something similar? Like small writing of each name on it as a thank you to the people that will make it possible.

I also have an excel copy of the table should something happen that messes up this google table, but please make every effort to maintain the google docs table properly

It has three tables on the spreadsheet - name list - kind donators - rover requirements

Link here:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AgR462RLR9badEhkQUhscEI1SndGSXZVVmNtNmhuYlE

Thank you !!!!

 

[Combat squirrel]

Spread sheet is looking healthy now guys

So I’ve been thinking of a way to organise this and have come up with a plausible way of contributing for each person, my rough proposal is:

1) We all discuss, design, thrash out the ideas for the rover online, shared folders, drop box etc to all share work and designs (will take a few weeks)

2) After a few weeks of everyone’s input on the design (how everything will work with each other) we will have an agreed final product – my key proposal is – make the rover modular, in that each person’s expertise area is utilised to the best in that they will make their particular module of the vehicle (much like Nasa contracts out different parts of their space vehicles)


3) Once all completed, all ship the parts to OCUK Rover Tech HQ for construction of the final product (I’m am happy to invite all who are interested to come to HQ for a day of fun construction and a few beers of course!)

4) The next idea I came up with is vehicle testing stage one – ill mount the physically finished rover on a stand in a spare room, hook up all the required computers to run it and create a VPN/Remote desktop to the systems, in addition the ‘master server’ I will hook up a HD IP camera with full and clear view of the rover from various angles. This way all the software guys can log into the system 24 hours a day and fine tune the rovers operational software (create, debug, experiment)……also they can control the rover of course starting its wheels turning, steering abilities, lower/raise masts and cameras on the rover and so on…….basically a live, real life online access zone for EVERYONE to be able to access.

5) Ill be happy to do any physical ‘real world’ changes to the rover….such as if a programmer requests to move from mains powered electric sources to the onboard power systems, happy to provide a environmentally controlled env, i.e. a fancy way of saying ill put a large fan in the room to try out wind turbines or ill install high watt lighting to test the solar panals.

6) Once this has been done (will take as long as it takes), I will make an indoor test environment in my garage, i.e. sand and rocks all over the floor so again everyone can remote log in and test the rover, try out the parts they constructed, of course ill make the rover accasable via the net/wifi for speed and also give options of engaging UHF / mobile phone connections. (im also happy to get a couple of mobile smart phones of everyones request, android, win phones etc, ill also take out a 3 mobile unlimited data contract and also pay for that)

7) For fun im also happy to ‘mount’ the rover on a stand as mentioned in point 4, but in a chest freezer with controllable water spray nozzels, i.e. a harsh environment to test in

8) Stage 3 of testing is putting the rover ‘in the field’ (literally ) in Snowdonia on private land (as mentioned I know the owner, it will be ok) – this will then be an operational long distance controlled rover if it all works.

9) We can either stop there or put it in a highly remote place in Snowdonia for a few days once we know it wont get stolen, I have some friends that regularly go into Snowdonia on a daily basis and will know of locations where no one really gets to.



How does all this sound? It gives an excellent testing environment through progressive stages of development and also allows everyone to get hands on, even if there 100’s of miles away.


EDIT: Also for the software (this is not my area of expertise so im sure you guys will think of a much better way of doing this!), but we could program it nice and simple perhaps, and enable minimal text msgs to be sent to the rover in addition to a 3G data connection. For example we could make commands such as

TR30,MF5

Which the rover could read as Turn Right 30 degrees Move Forward 5cm

Or

TL20,MB1

Which would make it turn left 20 degrees then move back 1cm

Or

MF3

Move forward 3 cm

How does that sound? Simple small commands, I suggest we make it with just one speed, not varying speeds, i.e. a low range motor with high torque and make it move say 1 mph at all times, so when it executes commands we know how fast it goes, or we could program in 2 speeds, L and H, low and high and code it,

What you guys think?

 

[Combat squirrel]

what are you planning to do with the machine once all its roving has came to an end?

if your asking people to donate then I feel its a question we should know the answer to

Defiantly, iv not really thought to be honest, we could post it around between everyone so they can have a play with it ?

Then after that..... we could start project 2 and use components from it to do another build?

Personally my 'dream' would be to approach Copenhagen sub orbitals and try and make a pitch to become there high altitude/space robotics division - I like that they are an open source development team. - who knows, 20 years they could build a rocket that could orbit/go to the moon and we could build the tech / satellites / rovers that it would take there - pie in the sky at the moment but got to have something lofty to aim for.

 

[Combat squirrel]

If machine vision is a requirement of this rover (for autonomous point-of-interest based navigation) then we'll need a platform that's far more powerful (unless that work is done off-board on a separate DSP or something).

OP, are there plans to get a forum set up for this kind of discussion? A lot of this will get lost if it's constrained to a single thread.

Good point, I guess we could setup an off site forum, but id like to keep it on OCUK if possible, shall I contact a mod and put forth the idea of a sub forum for this?

 

[Combat squirrel]

I think an off-site forum would be best and you could keep this thread (or start a new one) as a build log to keep everyone updated with progress without the masses of technical discussion that will be needed.

Cool will let a few others chirp in with whats the best idea/forum to use here then sort something out.

Completely randomly I thought of using iPad 3 batteries as the main power hold, as far as I can tell they are high capacity for a small volume, wide and flat but a sandwich or 2 of them on the base of the rover chassis would spread its weight nicely

 

[Combat squirrel]

Spreadsheet updated with my input.

May I sugges you add the link for the spreadsheet to the OP. Much easier for people to find.

Good plan, done

 

[Combat squirrel]

Hey there, I believe a poster above contacted a mod for a sub forum for this project anything replied yet ?