Though the Chandrayan-I mission ended prematurely this August, work is afoot for the second mission and the scientists of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) who are working in the project have roped in the professors of the Indian Institute of Technology- Kanpur (IIT-K) for helping them in developing India’s first lunar rover.

ISRO has asked the IIT-K professors to develop and test three major components of the lunar rover, which will be sent to moon in 2012 as past of Chandrayan-II.

Of the eight major components of the rover, the three components assigned to IIT-K include development and testing of computer vision-based autonomous 3D map generation system, kinematic traction control, and control and motor dynamics of the six wheels of the mobile robot.

While K S Venkatesh, the associate professor of the institute’s electrical engineering department, is working on the visual navigation project, associate professor of mechanical engineering Ashish Dutta has been given the responsibility to develop and validate the kinematic traction control models.

Associate professor of the electrical engineering department Ramprasad Potluri is working on control and motor dynamics of the rover’s six wheels.

All the three professors who were told to begin work in the project in March 2009 plan to complete their “assignments” by 2010.

“Under the visual navigation project, photographs of the lunar surface will be taken through a system of cameras installed in the rover,” K S Venkatesh told The Indian Express. He said the cameras will also help in deciding the movement of the mobile robot. The visual navigation will provide 3D maps of the lunar terrain.

... contd.