Mission Guide Rcx

MISSION TO MARS

http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/biomed/marsdome/

Is

it possible for humans to survive on Mars? With concerns over global warming and over population on the rise, NASA and other scientists from around the world have begun to explore this question with increased vigor. However, relocating to Mars is not a simple task and a great deal of information must be gathered before we can even consider it as a possibility. During the next three weeks, you are going to help mankind take a giant step in this information gathering process by construction a rover that has a wide array of remote sensing capabilities and sending it to the red planet to collect data.

Developed by Rick Dustin-Eichler and Rob Hanson Windsor Central Supervisory Union [email protected]

MISSION GUIDE

Assignment 1--ENTRY, DESCENT, LANDING The decent to the red planet is treacherous. In this assignment you will design and build a rover that can survive this hazardous journey. Assignment 2--CONTROLLING YOUR ROVER For this assignment you will program a rover that has the ability to autonomously navigate through the harsh Martian environment. Assignment 3--MAPPING MARS Assignment three will require you to map Mars’s surface. Assignment 4--LOOKING FOR WATER During this assignment, you will use your rovers light sensor to analyze Mars’s geological make-up. Assignment 5--RETRIEVING SAMPLES In this final assignment, you will program your rover to collect soil samples and return them to base.

ENTRY, DESCENT, LANDING Assignment 1 Problem: Landing on the Martian surface is extremely treacherous. To safely land, your rover will have to survive speeds in excess of 12,000 miles per hour, temperatures of 26370 F, and a four story free fall. To watch a video on how NASA solved this problem go to http:// marsrover.nasa.gov/gallery/video/challenges.html and watch the complete video on EDL. Requirements: Use the engineering process to design and build a model rover that will survive a 25 centimeter free fall. Your rover must have two motors, two wheels, and incorporate the RCX into its design. What is the problem? Engineering Process

What are the requirements?

Does it work?

Build

http://marsrovers.nasa.gov/mission/tl_entry1.html

What is the plan?

TIPS FOR STRONG BUILDING When possible use axles, bushings, and connector pegs to connect pieces.

Use bracing to reinforce your building.

Gears can be used to move multiple wheels with one motor.

Attach beams to the sides of your RCX and build off them.

CONTROLLING YOUR ROVER Assignment 2

Wait For Time

Because the distance from Earth to Mars is so great (55 and 100 million km), we cannot the Mars rovers control cannot our rover be controlled remotely.remotely. This means A successful that a successful rover must roverbe mustto able benavigate able to navigate the Martian the martian landscape landscape autonomously autonomously (on its own). (on its Over own). Thiscourse the assignment of thisisassignment broken intoyou four will... different segments to help you learn how to program a rover that has the ability to respond to its environment. Over the course Learn of this to use assignment time to control you will... your rover’s movements, Learn toyour use time to control your rover’s Control car with the rotation sensor.movements, Control with rotation sensor. Programyour yourcar rover to the shutdown when the sunsets Have your rover autonomously search for a missing astronaut

Wait For Touch

Wait For Darker

Wait For Rotation

5

Wait For Temperature

http://www.sulinet.hu/inform/balazscikk/legorobot/rcxerz.jpg

WAIT FOR TIME Problem: Program your rover to move a set distance using the wait for time icon. Requirements: Use your rover from assignment 1 to solve this problem. Procedure: 1. Open RoboLab by clicking on the RCX icon. 2. Click on the

button.

3. Create a new project by pressing the

button. Name your project “Mars Rover.”

4. The new screen that opens will look like this. Please click on the down arrow that is next to Program Level 1 and select Program Level 4. Now double click on the icon. 5. Select each icon on the new programming screen and delete each of one. 6. Start your program with a green light

.

7. After the green light, add the motors that correspond to the motors on your rover.

.

8. Now you need to add the wait for time icon to tell the motors how long to run for. To do this, open the wait for menu

and drag the wait for time icon into your program

.

9. To tell the car how long to drive for, go to the modifiers menu , find the numeric consonants icon 0 , drag it under the clock and connect the text box to the bottom of the wait for time icon. Now type the time that you want your rover to travel into this box. 3

10.What do you want to happen once the time passes? To stop your rover place an ABC stop sign after the wait for time. 3

11.Finish your program by placing a red light at the end of it.

3

12.Upload your program by turning on your RCX, plugging in the IR tower, and pressing the at the top left corner of the programing panel.

that is located

13.Now run your rover three times, measure the distance that it travels each time, and enter the data into the following data table. 14. Reprogram you rover to run for 1 second, 2 seconds, 3 seconds, 4 seconds, 5 seconds and 6 seconds and repeat step 13 for each time.

WAIT FOR TIME-DATA Enter your data from step 13 into the following table. Trial 1

Trial 2

Trial 3

1 Second 2 Seconds 3 Seconds 4 Seconds 5 Seconds 6 Seconds

Graph your averaged data below. (Remember to title the graph and label each axis.)

Average

WAIT FOR TIME-ANALYSIS Please use the data that you collected to fill in the following chart.

Distance

Time

10 cm 20 cm 30 cm 50 cm 80 cm 1m 1.5 m 3m 10 m

Use the following area as a work space.

WAIT FOR ROTATION Problem: Program your rover to move a set distance using the wait for rotation icon. Requirements: Use your rover from assignment 1 to solve this problem. Procedure: 1. Attach the rotation sensor to one of your rover’s axles and connect it to input port 1 (see the diagram on page 5 if you do not know where input port 1 is). HINT: For your rotation sensor to be most accurate, it must be securely fastened to your rover. 2. Open RoboLab and your Mars Rover project. 3. Once your project opens, add a new program by clicking on the + sign on the bottom left hand corner of the screen and name it “wait for rotation” by typing in the text box in the top right hand corner of the screen. 4. After that, change the program level to 4 (like you did in the last assignment), open the program, and delete all of the icons that are on the program pallet. 5. Start writing a program that drives your car forward but stop when you get to the wait for icon. 6. Instead of adding a wait for time icon, you are going to use a wait for rotation icon. This icon is in the wait for menu like the clocks and it looks like this

. Once you find it, add it to the end of your program.

7. Unlike the wait for time icon, you need to tell the computer where the rotation sensor is plugged in. To do this, open the modifiers menu

, find the input 1 icon

, and drag it underneath the rotation sensor.

8. While you are in the modifiers menu, you should also take a numeric consonants box 0 and place it under the rotation sensor. You will enter how many rotations you want your rover’s axle to move in this box. Now enter 16 into the box. REMEMBER: RoboLab measures rotations in 16ths. 1 rotation = 16 9. Finish your program by adding a stop sign and red light. 16

10. Now run your rover three times, measure the distance that it travels each time, and enter the data into the following data table. 11. Reprogram you rover to run for 1/16th of a rotation, 2 full rotations, 4 full rotations, 5 full rotations, 10 full rotations, and 20 full rotations and repeat step 10 for each trial.

WAIT FOR ROTATION-DATA Enter your data from the step 13 into the following table. Trial 1

Trial 2

Trial 3

1/16th of a Rotation 1 Full Rotation 2 Full Rotations 4 Full Rotations 5 Full Rotations 10 Full Rotations 20 Full Rotations

Graph your averaged data below. (Remember to title the graph and label each axis.)

Average

WAIT FOR ROTATION-ANALYSIS Please use the data that you collected to fill in the following chart.

Distance

Rotations

10 cm 20 cm 30 cm 50 cm 80 cm 1m 1.5 m 3m 10 m

Use the following area as a work space.

SAVING POWER Problem: Because the Mars Rovers run on solar energy, the need to shut down at night to conserve power. Requirements: Use your rover from assignment 1 and write a program that has your rover shut down when the lights are turned off and start moving again when the lights are turned back on. Procedure: 1.Attach a light sensor to your rover and connect it to input port 1. HINT: Your program will work best if the light sensor is pointing up. 2. Open RoboLab and your Mars Rover project. 3. Once your project opens, add a new program by clicking on the + sign on the bottom left hand corner of the screen and name it “saving power” by typing in the text box in the top right hand corner of the screen. 4. After that, change the program level to 5 , open the program, and delete all of the icons that are on the program pallet. 5. Now you are going to write a simple program that will drive your rover around the room. Start by writing a program that has your rover drive forward and then turn. You can choose what wait for icons to use to control the duration of each segment of the program. 6. Test this section of the program to make sure that your rover behaves like you want it to. 7. To make programming more efficient, programers often use loops to repeat sections of their program over and over again. The type of loop that we are going to use to repeat the section that we just wrote is called a jump. To repeat a command, you need to start by placing a land arrow before the string of commands that you would like to repeat and a jump arrow at the end of the same string. Look at the following set of commands to learn how to do this. Land Arrows

Jump Arrows

1. Open the structures pallet. pallet.

You will find it in the formatting

2.Click on the arrow icon. 3. Inside the structures pallet you will find the jumps. Place any color jump arrow at the end of your drive and turn sequence and the same color landing arrow at the beginning of the sequence. Your program should look something like this.

4. Now test your program. It should repeat the same movement pattern over and over again.

SAVING POWER 8. Once you get your rover to behave like you want it to, you need to add another section to the program that will make it rest when the sunsets (the lights are turned off). To do this we are going to add an event. Enter the events pallet by going to the structures pallet

and then selecting the events symbol

.

9. Events are a cross between wait for commands and jumps. At the beginning of the program you need to initialize the event, which tells the program to run your regular program until an event occurs. In this case the event is going to be the lights turning off. Then at the end you need an event landing that tells the program where to jump to when the event occurs. Let’s get programming. 1. Use the icons in the events pallet to make your program look like this.

Event Jump

Initialize event

2. Like when you program with the wait for icons, you need to add modifiers to the event icons to tell the RCX what port they are plugged into. Go to the modifiers pallet and add this icon.

3. You also need to link each part of the event together. You do this by pressing on the key in the bottom left hand corner of the modifiers pallet

.

4. Once you are in the event modifiers menu, put a key from the first column of the first row under the set-up light sensor event icon and a key from the second of the first row under the start monitoring for

an event icon. 5. Finally, finish the program by telling the robot what you want it to do after the lights go off.

6. Test you rover. 7. Challenge: Can you find a way to modify your program so that your rover wakes up again when the lights are turned back on and repeats this program over again?

SAVING POWER Why did the directions ask you to test your rover after you completed each section of the program?

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If you have time, watch some of the Mars Rover videos at http://marsrover.nasa.gov/gallery/video/

Recover Stranded Astronaut! Problem: Just two days ago, on March 23, 2036, your crew of four astronauts made history. While billions of people watched from Planet Earth, your internationally sponsored Horizons spacecraft landed on Mars – and you and your fellow crew members became the first humans to set foot on another planet. But now triumph is quickly turning into disaster. It has been ten hours since fellow Officer Misaki Kato was separated from the rest of the Horizons crew during a fierce Martian dust storm. You understand all-too-well that if she’s not found before the Martian sunset, she will be forced to spend a night alone with a dwindling oxygen supply and temperatures dropping to below 200 degrees Fahrenheit. Your mission is to use your knowledge of robot programming to create a search program, then engage the Mars rover to find Misaki in the shortest time possible. All of humankind – not to mention Misaki! – is counting on you. Good luck! Requirements: Build a rover that will search the Martian surface (a white mat that is 4ft by 6ft with a thick black border), stop when it finds Misaki (a Lego astronaut that is taped to the top of a filled water bottle), and play a victory song. Hint: The position of Misaki will change after each attempt and your rover must start in the same position every time.

Procedure: 1. Build and test your rover.

http://1div0.files.wordpress.com/2008/01/ nasa_mars_earth_500px1.jpeg

http://rlv.zcache.com/out_in_a_martian_dust_storm_posterp2282435200890777138h7h_400.jpg

SPEEDY EXPRESSIONS GRAPHING ROTATIONS Assignment 3 Story: Imagine a bright and sunny sol on Mars and your rover is traveling at a good clip when all of a sudden it mistakenly falls into a deep crater and slams to a stop at the bottom. After stopping for a moment, it slowly climbs out of the crater and continues on at a more cautious rate of speed.

Now, think back to the story that we just read and create a graph that expresses the roverʼs speed.

SPEEDY EXPRESSIONS GRAPHING ROTATIONS Explore: Now, you are going to start exploring how your RCX can be used to collect data. To get started... Put a rotation sensor back on your rover, plug it into port 1, and then unplug your motors. Port 1 Open your Mapping Mars file in RoboLab, create a new program, and name it speedy expressions. This time Rotation we are going to work in program level 1. Sensor Make your program look like this and then upload it to your robot by pressing the one sided arrow. Press run on your rover and move it around the floor. Move it backwards and forwards. Move it fast and slow. Once the person on the RCX’s screen stops walking bring your rover back to your computer and upload the data. To do this...

Collect 500

Collect a data point every .1 seconds

Upload

First press the upload data button . After the upload screen opens, place your RCX in front of the IR tower and

press the upload button.

.

Check out your data. What story does it tell?

SPEEDY EXPRESSIONS GRAPHING ROTATIONS Please use this graph to answer the following questions. 1. What does the X-axis represent?___________________________________________ 2. What does the Y-axis represent?___________________________________________ 3. What happens when you turn the wheel quickly?

_________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ 4. What happens when you turn the wheel slowly?

_________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ 5. What happens when you do not turn the wheel?

_________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ 6. Look back at the story that we started this lesson with and try to create a graph that shows the roverʼs motion. Once you are done, print the graph and staple it to this page. How does this graph compare to the one that you created at the beginning of the lesson?

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MAPPING MARS This icon tells the rover to collect data from the rotation sensor that is plugged into input 1. The rover will store the data in the red and green bin.

The green sign data icon instructs the rover to start taking data readings every one second and to store that data in the red and green bin.

Assignment 4 Problem: In addition to driving around and collecting specimens, your rover must collect numerical data and send it back to NASA. For your first data collection assignment, you must write a program, collect data with the rotation sensor, and use that data to map your classroom. How to program your rover: 1.Open your project folder and create a new program called Mapping Mars. 2. To program your rover to collect data you need to start the program with a green light that is followed by an icon that tells the rover what sensor it is going to use to collect data. In this assignment we are going to use the rotation sensor . This icon is in the investigator pallet on the functions pallet, it has a pencil on it. Once you are in that folder, drag the rotation sensor icon to your programming pallet and connect it to the green light. 3.Now, add the appropriate modifiers to your icon. Look in the column to the left to see what modifiers you need. 4.After that, you need to tell your motors to start

In statistics N means how many data readings. This N icon tells the rover to collect 500 data readings.

.

5.Next, tell the rover to start collecting data . This icon is also in the investigator folder and it needs two modifiers. Again, look to the left if you do not remember which modifiers to add. 6.Like any other program, you need to add a wait for icon. This time we want the program to wait for N data points to be collected. The N icon is in the wait for pallet and should be connected to the start data logging icon. Try using the 10 N icon

The stop sign data icon tells the rover to stop collecting data.

7.Finally, you need to add the stop data logging light icons. Do not forget the modifiers!

, stop motors, and red

8.When you finish, you program should look like this.

9.Run your car.

MAPPING MARS CONTINUED 10.To look at your data, click on the

that is to the left of your programming pallet.

11.Once you are in the new screen, place your rover in front of the IR tower and press the data. Your data should look something like this.

to upload your

12.Now it is time for some algebra. If you remember, 1 rotation = 16. What equation do we have to use to make 1 rotation = 1?

13. After you figure this out, select the icon. The screen that opens will have a calculator at the bottom that looks like this. Enter your equation into this calculator and watch to see how the graph at the top of the screen changes.

Change the bucket to match the color your original rotational data.

Enter your equationʼs What function do constant here. you want to apply to your rotational data? Enter it here.

MAPPING MARS CONTINUED This equation says the value of the blue bucket (the value of my rotation sensor) multiplied by 10 equals the value of the green bucket.

14.How can you change the next function and constant to make this into equation tell you the distance that the rover traveled? Think about the discussion we had after assignment two. Write your equation here and then type it into RoboLab.

15. Use your graph to figure out how far your rover traveled.

http://www.ntsl119.com/LEGOmatics/archives/20081003-LEGOAttendance/index.html

MAPPING MARS CONTINUED Challenge Use the information that you learned in the first part of this assignment to write a program that the rover can use to measure the dimensions of your classroom. Hint: You can measure each distance individually.

In the space below, draw a map of your classroom. Please be sure to use a ruler and label its dimensions.

Please explain the process that you used to create your map.

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LOOKING FOR WATER Background: Sedimentary Rocks--Sedimentary rocks are formed at the surface of the Earth, either in water or on land. They are layered accumulations of sediments: fragments of rocks, minerals, or animal or plant material. Temperatures and pressures are low at the Earth's surface, and sedimentary rocks show this fact by their appearance and the minerals they contain. Most sedimentary rocks become cemented together by minerals and chemicals or are held together by electrical attraction; some, however, remain loose and unconsolidated. The layers are normally parallel or nearly parallel to the Earth's surface; if they are at high angles to the surface or are twisted or broken, some kind of Earth movement has occurred since the rock was formed. Sedimentary rocks are forming around us all the time. Sand and gravel on beaches or in river bars look like the sandstone and conglomerate they will become. Compacted and dried mud flats harden into shale. Scuba divers who have seen mud and shells settling on the floors of lagoons find it easy to understand how sedimentary rocks form. For more information go to the following website. http://www.fi.edu/fellows/ fellow1/oct98/create/ sediment.htm

Assignment 4 Exploration: During this exploration you are going to find the mean light refraction rate for a series of rocks that are found on Mars. Procedure 1.Mount a light sensor on your rover so it is no more than .5 cm above the ground. 2.Create a new program file in your project folder that is called “Rocks.” 3.Using your rotation sensor program as a model, create a new program that will collect light data only. You rover does not have to move. The rover should collect 50 samples at a sample rate of .5 seconds. 4.Upload your program and move your rover slowly over one rock layer. 5.Download the data. 6.To find the mean light value of the layer. Goto the compare screen , find the pull down menu at the top of the screen that says compare and change it to measure, select the data set that you want to analyze, and finally change the to the mean icon. 7.Enter the mean for each rock type in the chart below.

Please record the light values for each of the different rock types in the following chart. Rock Type

Average Light Reading

LOOKING FOR WATER Problem: If humans are going to colonize Mars, they need to find a reliable and renewable water source. One way to discover if there is or ever was water on Mars is to look for sedimentary rocks. In this assignment, you will create a rover that will use its light and rotation sensors to find sedimentary rocks and map where they are located. Requirements: Add a light sensor to your rover. The light sensor must be securely fastened to your rover and located approximately 1 cm off of the ground. Procedure: 1.Create a new program file in your project folder that is called “Looking For Water.” 2.Using your rotation sensor program as a model, create a new program that collects both rotation and light data at the same time. To do this you need to...

Initialize both sensors and use different data bins for each sensor.

Start and stop each sensor. You can do this by stringing the modifiers together. 3.Now you are ready to start collecting data. Run your robot on one of the Martian surfaces, upload the data, and use it to answer the following questions. HINT: You might want to use the calculator feature to change your rotation data from a 1:16 to a 1:1 correspondence.

Please list the order of the rock layers and explain how you found this information.

_____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ How far away from base was each rock layer? How did you discover this information? Layer 1 2 3 4

Distance

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LOOKING FOR WATER Challenge: When scientists use robots and other tools to collect data remotely, they often do not have the benefit of seeing the place where the data is collected. All they know about the world that they are exploring is the data that they are receiving. To simulate this, give your rover to your partner and have them run it on the remote Martian surfaced (it is located in the hallway). After they return, please upload the data, print the graph, staple it to this page, and analyze the data.

Use the following space to map the area of Mars that your rover traveled over. Please make sure that you label the distances from base to each rock layer.

How did you solve this challenge?

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Future ideas: What would you like to know about Mars? Create a rover to collect that information. What problems would astronaughts encounter on Mars? Create a machines/bot to solve that problem.