Archives for: October 2008
CESAR is a rockstar
by Andreas Bresser 
We still can not believe it, but as it looks like we really won the first ESA Lunar Robotics Challenge!
a small pricing ceremony in the hotel. Felix had to leave earlier so he is not there ( click to enlarge )
Great thanks to everyone from the University and the DFKI who helped us. This would not be possible without your support!
Sorry to all the readers that we update our blog just now, but the new semester started last week, while we were on Tenerife, so we had to create our time-schedule, visit lectures and of course celebrated a bit... besides that we have over 2400 files of photo and video material that has to be reviewed, cutted and filtered. Of course we can (and want) to show you all the stuff we brought back but I think it is the best to show you only some selected shots.
Ok, as I said there is a lot of stuff to show you. I will skip the first days (where we already wrote something about) and start directly with photos from thursday, the day of the first night trial.
Before the night trial we had the opportunity to take a first look at the sample.
Sebastian and me observing the sample. ( click to enlarge )
Also we tried the repeater during the day:
the repeater blinking and repeating video and command signals. ( click to enlarge )
Here you can get a small impression from inside our truck. As you can see there is not that much space in it so we had to attend not to mess up the place to much, which was not easy...
Hi Mehmed! ( click to enlarge )
This is what I call organized chaos ( click to enlarge )
During the night we cover our truck with a plane that we brought from germany. Thanks to Thilo who forseight that we need one.
lets go camping. ( click to enlarge )
Time was running out. The challenge came closer and the ToDo-List growed. We filled up 3 of these charts. These todo lists are not empty now, so there is still something to do when CESAR arrives back in Bremen.
Still some "minor" things to do... ( click to enlarge )
But we made progress and so CESAR was ready for his first night trial.
CESAR is ready ( click to enlarge )
Here comes our hero. He leaves the truck for a small walk...
GO CESAR! ( click to enlarge )
...while we saw the world through his eye. And what we saw was the proof that the man in the moon exists... and he takes pictures of our CESAR.
CESAR really is a rockstar. ( click to enlarge )
Our lander-pc had a monitor that showed a live image that the operator of the robot also sees on his screen. On a real moon-mission this pc would be very small, embedded into the "lander" and without a monitor. But as time was running out I did not managed to write a small start script that starts everything automatically. So I had to start some small scripts as we set up the lander on its start-position. Therefore we needed a keyboard and a monitor on the lander. Nice, unplaned side-effect of this was that the people who stand on the crater rim to watch CESAR could see something when we turned out the light to see with the infrared camera.
Thilo got some important operator training.
Thilo was very conenctrated controlling the robot. ( click to enlarge )
Also most of the other teams were working on their robots during the night. Some locked themselves inside the truck. I think only the Finnish team left early that day.
The site at night. Dark and cold. Just take a picture and than back to the truck ( click to enlarge )
So much for now. Stay tuned for more stuff from CESAR and his triumphal ride.
10/30/08 11:12:09 pm, Video Footage :-)
von admin
Ola y buenas dia!!
We're happy to announce that we finally managed to do the 10 MB upload ( after only 4 hours of uploading 
) of our small teaser video showing little Cesar in his first field test here at the challenge site!
Enjoy the footage !!!
-CESAR Crew,
Live from the
ESA Lunar Robotics Challenge, Day 2
von admin
Hello everyone and greetings from the first Lunar Robotics Challenge!
It is now the second day of the challenge and we surely have some exciting news for you all - sorry for the delay; we promised to post earlier, however there were some issues with the internet uplink. Well, after all we're in the middle of nowhere, so things tend to have their own will.
So, yesterday morning at 9:00 am the first working day at the challenge site began; and everything started in packing out our equipment, making sure nothing was damaged during transportations and make ourselves comfortable in our mobile lab:
While some of the crew were working hard, ...
... others enjoyed the morning sun! Or was it the other way round? ;-)
A bit later, while little Cesar still was in manufacture, the Oulu team had their first test run ( well, they came with a ready-to-go system... ):
However, a little bit later, our Cesar was as well ready to roll:
How well we performed, see for yourself:
However, unfortnuately, there's bad news as well. Later on the day, two of our crew members had been knocked out by a bad viral infection which still causes them to lie in their beds - we wish them a fast recovery and not too much of boredom until they get back to the testing site.
As for today, we have to deal with more difficult conditions due to bad weather and reduced crew; however, we intend to finish our test runs on sample collection and repeater deployment. Due to the unstable internet connection we cannot predict when we can post our next update; however we are trying to upload a small video for you guys to see Cesar in action.
Stay tuned, and best wishes from the canarean islands!
-The Cesar Crew
It is done!
by Thilo Kaupisch
Since 8 p.m. Wednesday evening CESAR robot is a well shaped, fully functional, fast and fun system. All parts of the communication, control and robot system are perfectly working. I'm SO glad =) (check previous posts, especially YouTube-Video about the accident).
It seems that this was the last 18 hour day for the next three weeks. Time to relax and prepare for the big challenge. Good luck to our ambitious competitors:
- Jacobs University
- Universidad Politecnica de Madrid
- Oulun Yliopisto (University of Oulu)
- Università di Pisa
- Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna
- Surrey Space Centre, University of Surrey
- Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule - ETH)
(For the new readers: challenge announcement )
The game is on 
As a "Betthupferl" here the latest impressions of the bot, the place, the people ... enjoy!
CESAR's controlstick ... of to the craters! ( click to enlarge )
no words...( click to enlarge )
no words...( click to enlarge )
no words...( click to enlarge )
no words...( click to enlarge )
no words...( click to enlarge )
no words...( click to enlarge )
no words...( click to enlarge )
no words...( click to enlarge )
no words...( click to enlarge )
no words...( click to enlarge )
no words...( click to enlarge )
The repeater. It is planned to be dropped at the crater's rim to forward video and 868MHz communication( click to enlarge )
The remains of the team with a slightly less need for sleep( click to enlarge )
Merely minutes away from the first goal! #1( click to enlarge )
Merely minutes away from the first goal! #2( click to enlarge )
Souvenir pic of the institute's own crater #1( click to enlarge )
Souvenir pic of the institute's own crater #1( click to enlarge )
Up and running
by Thilo Kaupisch
Even better than before. The freshly finished 868MHz communication is working fine far beyond the performance of the previous 35MHz RC. Mehmed finished the antenna array for the repeater by midnight which should enable us to do a full scale final test with all components together by tomorrow (tomorrow is after sleeping) noon. And then it's it ... packing, loading, time to say goodbye. Even though the hauler will not arrive until Thursday morning, the packing should be done clear-minded.
To satisfy the audio-visual needs of our loyal readers, here the footage of todays labour.
Michael is joking with the robot's operator through the main camera ( click to enlarge )
All set and ready, forwards! ( click to enlarge )
Climbing wet sand ... german weather is so much fun =) ( click to enlarge )