Publication
The Artemis Rover as an Example for Model Based Engineering in Space Robotics
Stefan Haase; Thomas M. Roehr
DFKI GmbH, DFKI Documents (D), Vol. 14-03, No. 14-03, ISBN ISSN 0946-0098, Selbstverlag, Bremen, 6/2014.
Abstract
Future application of robotic missions in the space context will require the systems to have both mobility and manipulation capabilities. The limited direct communication with the systems due to visibility, and severe time delays also make it a requirement for the system to perform its actions mainly autonomously. The increasing complexity of the task, as well as the strict requirements for reliability and fault tolerance pose a significant challenge to both engineering and research activities. The SpaceBot Cup was held in November 2013 to probe those capabilities in the context of a competition. In this paper we present the Artemis rover and its software architecture as well as the competition results and lessons learned. Special attention is given to the modular design based on the Robot Construction Kit (Rock); a component based software framework, which uses a component model based on the Orocos Real-Time-Toolkit (RTT).