Picorover with Spikes!

The plain Picorover with blank surface is quite good at climbing moderate slopes. Nonetheless, people suggested that the climbing capabilities could be improved by adding spikes to the surface of the sphere. Well, you don't have to tell us twice! Here is the experiment.

Can a Picorover Climb a Slope?

The Picorover team consisting of Raul, Enric and Joshua (leader) are very busy with keeping up to speed with the development of the other rover concepts (Jaluro and WRV1). The Picorover concept has a lot to prove before it can be decided whether it is a feasible design for a lunar rover.

This video shows a feasibility study investigating the dynamical properties of Picorover on a slope. The technical details of the study can be found in Picorover Feasibility Study.

New WRV1 Lunar Rover Mock-up

Here is a new WRV1 lunar rover mock-up from Jörg using the new state of the art wheels, the steering unit and... Stokys (erector set) for the rest. As you can see, there is even plenty of room left for electronics :-)

From WRV1: Wheeled Rover Vehicle 1

Steering Unit for the WRV1 Lunar Rover

The steering unit in the middle of the WRV1 lunar rover is a critical component because it defines the dynamical properties of the rover - in particular its ability to maneuver. Jörg has now manufactured the three key parts that allow the rover body to bend around two axes.

Jaluro off the Leash

Let's round off this week with some breaking news about Jaluro and a story about just how crazy we are.

Jaluro is now off the leash! You may remember the first Jaluro video posted about 6 weeks ago when Tobi was making the first tests using a wired connection. Now, Jaluro has got a wireless control and Tobi recorded the video below showing his first outdoor tests using the wireless interface.

We were also happy to see some clear evidence (see NASA and Caltech Test Steep-Terrain Rover) that the two-wheeled concept is a very viable option for planetary exploration. We wish Jaluro could get the same media attention as JPL News ;-)


The evening before Tobi recorded this video, we were hanging out on our IRC channel (#teamfrednet) having some casual chats about "stuff". Suddenly, Tobi got the idea of setting Jaluro up so that Anders and myself could send commands to it from Copenhagen! Before we knew it, we were also broadcasting it live via ustream.tv so that everybody on the channel could watch Jaluro do something as we were sending commands to it. It was a crazy Thursday night that ended around 3 AM CET. You can read the IRC log here.

By the way, anybody is welcome to hang out on our IRC channel. It is #teamfrednet on irc.freenode.net or you can use a web interface (choose a real nickname instead of mib_***).

I'll be back next week with more crazy news.