Mission Background

Mission Scenario

There has been an accident on the European Mars Space Station Hope and the station has been damaged. The Swiss Space Agency along with the EPFL Robotics lab have been commissioned to send 16 robotic rovers to the station in order to assess and begin repairs to the station. The rovers have already started their journey to Mars and we have been asked to develop the software and programs needed for the rovers to navigate around the station and begin repairs.

We know that the station's generator has been affected and that there is debris scattered around the station. We need to get the generator back in working order, report back on damage and debris around the station and begin cleaning up and moving components back in place.

You will be divided into teams of 3 and assigned 1 rover per team. Each team has 7 weeks to develop 4 or 5 programs for their rover. On mission day, each team will work and coordinate with 2 or 3 other teams in their sector in order to begin to assess damage and get the station up and running. To do so, each rover will need:

• to get out of their landing capsule

• calibrate the speed of their rover

• calculate scale of their map to be able to calculate distances on the ground

• follow a line to the station's outer door

• navigate through the station's outer corridor in order to enter

• identify spills on the station floor

• move generator components back in place

• diagnose the power of the generator

Therefore each team will need to create programs for:

• Getting out of the lander

• General navigation (moving forward, back, turning left/right for certain angles, time distances)

• Following a line and stopping

• Navigating through corridor