ROBEX – COMPONENTS AND METHODS FOR THE PLANETARY EXPLORATION DEMONSTRATION MISSION

Abstract

This paper presents the current activities of the ROBEX alliance. ROBEX is developing innovative technologies and procedures for the exploration within extreme environments and also systems operating in the deep sea, on the moon or other celestial bodies. This paper gives a brief overview on the project’s aims and the core development activities, as well as robotic key components. It is planned to demonstrate and test those developments in a representative environment. Therefore a demo mission is scheduled in 2017. Within this paper, the planned “Demo Mission Space”, that covers the challenge of fully autonomous performance of complex robotic manipulation as well as the acquisition of scientific data in a space relevant environment is described in detail.. Finally a novel rover simulation toolkit is presented which strongly supports the overall design process of planetary rovers and facilitates mission planning.