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RESEARCH TEAM OF YOUNG PROFESSIONALS IN MECHATRONICS AND ROBOTICS

Be Part of our Rover Mission!

Welcome!

This is ARES!

We are proud to present our new rover ARES. “ARES” is an acronym for “Advanced Robot Exploration System”. This semi-autonomous rover, which we are constructing for the international space and robotics event European Rover Challenge (ERC), can perform different tasks within an unmanned mission.

Drawing on our experience from creating HORIZON XIX, we started development on ARES in October 2020.

This is what makes ARES special:

  • Just like its predecessor, ARES is equipped with a crawler chassis for ideal off-road mobility – a unique selling point among ERC competitors.
  • The chassis is powered by efficient and powerful BLCD.
  • ARES features a 6 DOF robotic arm with a parallel gripper as end effector for various manipulations. The robot arm is driven by a combination of harmonic drive gears and hybrid stepper motors.
  • Our rover is equipped with a “sample acquisition tool” for taking surface samples as well as an on-board laboratory for scientific analysis of up to three samples.
  • Thanks to using solar energy, we can guarantee the rover’s self-sufficient power supply.
  • Built with an aluminium space frame, ARES only weighs 52 kilograms – 50 kilos less than HORIZON XIX.
  • What is more, its dimensions are roughly 30 % smaller than those of its predecessor.
  • There is a new ground station software with new features for easier operation of the rover.
  • An extended modularity, both regarding the rover‘s hardware and software, helps prepare ARES more efficiently for new tasks.
  • It features three 2D-cameras for localization via ARTags and allows video feedback for the operator on the ground station.
  • Last but not least, the rover is equipped with a stereo vision camera for localization by means of a SLAM algorithm based on depth information.

HORIZON XIX

HORIZON XIX, weighing 102 kilograms, was FRoST’s first rover.

We developed it from August 2018 to September 2019 in order to take part in the ERC 2019.

This is what makes HORIZON XIX special:

  • HORIZON is able to drive over rough terrain and even up and down stairs.
  • The rover has a crawler chassis driven by two BLCD motors.
  • Its chassis is largely modular and expandable.
  • HORIZON is equipped with a drilling unit for taking subsurface samples

  • As well as three 2D-cameras for localization via ARTags
  • And allows video feedback for the operator on the ground station.
  • HORIZON features a 5DOF robot arm with end effector which is driven by a combination of harmonic drive gears and hybrid stepper motors.

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