Design and Implementation of Rover for Mars Communication: Review and Idea

International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) e-ISSN: 2395 -0056
Volume: 04 Issue: 02 | Feb -2017 www.irjet.net p-ISSN: 2395-0072
© 2017, IRJET | Impact Factor value: 5.181 | ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal | Page 1155
Design and Implementation of Rover for Mars Communication: Review
and Idea
Mr. Anilkumar Patil1, Rohan Jayadev2, Ashita Shah3
1Mr. Anilkumar Patil, Assistant Professor, Dept of ENTC Engineering, DYPIEMR-PUNE, Maharashtra, India
2Rohan Jayadev, Student(BE ENTC), DYPIEMR-PUNE, Maharashtra, India
3Ashita Shah, Student(BE ENTC), DYPIEMR-PUNE, Maharashtra, India
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Abstract – It shows how the mars rover communicates
back to the earth. It includes a virtual Mars station and a
virtual Earth station. The Mars rover captures an image and
sends it to the virtual Mars station. Now the image is
converted into a suitable signal so that it is transmitted to an
orbiting satellite. This satellite sends the signal to the virtual
earth station. It is converted to the original image on the
virtual earth station. This signal is sent to another orbiting
satellite if in case the communication with the first satellite
fails.
Key Words Used: Virtual Mars station, Virtual Earth
station, Rover, Orbiting satellite
1. INTRODUCTION
In Mars Mission (1971), orbiters/landers failed because of
the contact lost between the Mars and the Earth Station.
Thus the main focus is on how the rover on the mars would
communicate successfully to the earth station without the
failure of the orbiting satellite which would lead to the loss
of information. Hence this paper focuses on how the rover
would successfully transmit information to the earth from
the Mars without information lost. Also it proposes an
alternative for the probability of loss of information.
2. BLOCK DIAGRAM OF COMMUNICATION IN MARS
ROVER
Fig 1-: Block Diagram of communication in Mars Rover
2.1 Problem Statement
 Deciding the distance between the two virtual
servers so that they don’t communicate directly
between them.
 This would be decided by using link margin
calculation
2.2 Basic Working
 Capturing an image:
1. Stepper Motor would rotate the raspberry
pi camera for 10 degrees/second thus
rotating 36 times.
2. The images would arranged in a sequence
to generate a panaromic image.
 This image would be transmitted using
compression techniques like DCT, DWT, etc. to the
transceiver IC CC1120 at the virtual mars station.
 It would then be converted to a suitablesignal using
BPSK Modulation technique
 Through the dipole antenna it would be giventothe
two orbiting satellites through free bands available
of 144-148 VHF and 435-438 VHF.
 If any one of the orbiting satellite fails then the
signal would be transmitted through the other
satellite thus avoiding the loss of information.
 It would then be received through a dipole antenna
at the virtual earth station and would be converted
to the original format using BPSK Demodulation
technique.
Transmission of signal to both the satellites so that even if
one satellite would fail the other would transmit the signal
effectively.
3. PARTS AND DESIGN OF THE ROVER
3.1 Parts of the Rover
Table -1: Parts of the rover
PARTS QUANTITY
DESCRIPTION
STEERING WHEELS 6 For mobility purpose
SOLAR POWER CELLS
1 For power source (12 volts, 7 amperes
battery)

DC MOTORS
STEPPER MOTORS
2
2
To achieve 2.1 degrees/sec of rotation.
One motor to drive the wheels and one to
turn the wheels. One stepper motor to
rotate the rover, another to rotate the
camera module. DC motor driver IC
L293D would be used.
RASPBERRY PI
MODULE
1
One motor gives 10 degrees rotation
hence rotating for 36 times and
arranging in sequence which would be
done using digital image processing.
PI CAMERA
1
30 frames/second.
DIPOLE ANTENNA
2
One at the virtual mars station and the
other at the virtual earth station.
TRANSCEIVER IC
CC1120
2
For full duplex communication at the
transmitting and the reception side.
Hence this would involve deciding the charging and
discharging timetaken by the solarpowercellstoachievethe
required ratings. Also deciding theformatoftheimagewould
be transmitted and compression techniques which would be
used to transmit the image. Taking care of the time
constraints involved in sequencing of the image captured to
form a panaromic view. For steering purpose, Ackerman
steering principle would be used.
3.2 Mobility System
• Six 25 cm diameter wheels.
• Rover body has 30 cm ground clearance
• Solar panels
• Wheel baseline- 1 m side by side, 1.25 m front to
back.
• Straight line driving speed is 3.75 cm/sec
• Rover can turn in place at roughly 2.1 degrees/sec.
• Rover is statistically stable at a tilt of 45 degrees.
• Driving on more than 30 degrees slope is not
recommended
• Rocks taller than a wheel are considered as mobility
hazards.
Position of the rover is estimated by how much the wheels
have turned. Orientation is measured by inertial
measurement unit that has 3 axis accelerometer and 3 axis
angular rate sensors.
3.3 Design of the Rover
Fig 2:- Top View and Side View of the Rover
4. COMPONENTS USED
4.1 Raspberry Pi Module
• Operating system is of Raspbian.
• BCM2837 (BROADCOM) is the system on chipused.
• CPU is 1.2 GHz (64 or 32) bit quad core ARM Cortex.
• It has an operating frequency 900 MHz.
• Has micro SD slot for storage purpose.
• 4 watts power.
Fig -3: Raspberry Pi 3 B
4.2 Raspberry Pi Camera
Camera module is a 5 megapixel custom designed add-on for
Raspberry pi, featuring a fixed focus lens. It is capable of
2592x1944 pixel static images, and also supports 1080pixel
30 frames per second, 720pixel 60 frames per second.
Camera is supported in Raspberry pi.

Fig -4: Raspberry Pi 5 MP Camera Board Module
4.3 Transceiver IC CC1120
• CC1120 is a high performance single chip
Transceiver
• Configurable Data Rates 0 to 200 kbps
(64 dB bandwidth at 12.5 kHz Offset)
• Good Receiver Sensitivity
Fig -5: Transceiver IC CC1120
4.4 PIC18F4550
PIC18F4550 is an 8-bit microcontroller and is based on 16
bit instruction set architecture. PIC18F4550 consists of 32
KB flash memory, 2 KB Static RAM and 256 Bytes EEPROM.
This is a 40 pin microcontroller having 5 input outputports.
Fig -6: PIC18F4550
4.5 DC Motor
 To achieve precision rotation, DC motors would be
used. 2.1 degrees/second rotation would be
achieved.
 One motor would be used to drive the wheels.
 One motor would be used to turn the wheels.
 One would be mounted on raspberry pi through a
rod to achieve 10 degrees of rotation.
 Hence it would rotate 36 times hence giving a
rotation of 360 degrees.
 Driver IC L293D would be used to drive the motor.
Fig -7: DC Motor- 100 rpm
4.6 Solar Power Cells
 This would be used as a power source.
The time needed for it to charge and discharge
would be calculated to achieve 12 volts, 7 amperes
current.
Fig -8: Solar Power Cell
4.7 Stepper Motor
 One motor is used to rotate the rover
 The other is used to rotate the camera.
 A stepper motor is used so as to achieve precise
rotation.

Fig 9 -: Stepper Motor
4.8 Dipole Antenna
 It would be used at the transmitting and the
receiving stations. Transmission of the signal and
for reception of the signal so that the it would be
converted to the original format again.
Fig -10: Dipole Antenna
5. SOFTWARE USED
5.1 Python Language
 Python is a widely used high-level,general-purpose,
interpreted, dynamic programming language. Its
design philosophy emphasizescodereadability,and
its syntax allows programmers to express concepts
in fewer lines of code than would be possible in
languages such as C++ or Java.
6. APPLICATIONS
• Communication between the rover and the earth
station is achieved.
• The information from mars is obtained and
analyzed on the earth station.
REFERENCES
[1] Jong Hoon Ahnn. The robot control using the wireless
communication and the serial communication. Presented to
the Engineering Division of the Graduate School of Cornell
University.
http://www.cs.cornell.edu/~ja275/nasa/nasa%20final%20
report.pdf
[2] Rajeev K Piyare and Ravinesh Singh. Wireless Control of
an Automated Guided Vehicle.
http://www.iaeng.org/publication/IMECS2011/IMECS2011
_pp828-833.pdf
[3] K.K. Belostotskaya and V.I. Gusevsky. The Antenna
System of Mars Rover. Published in Microwaves, Radar and
Wireless Communications 2000. MIKON- 2000. 13th
International Conference on 22-24 May 2000.
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/913919/
[4] Jeffrey J. Biesiadecki and Mark W. Maimone. The Mars
Exploration Rover Surface Mobility Flight Software: Driving
Ambition. Published in 2006 IEEE Aerospace Conference
Proceedings, March 2006, Big Sky, Montana, USA.
https://www.robotics.jpl.nasa.gov/publications/Mark_Maim
one/biesiadecki_maimone06.pdf
[5] Robert D Braun and RobertMManning.MarsExploration
Entry, Descent and Landing Challenges. Published in
Aerospace Conference, 2006 IEEE.
http://www.ssdl.gatech.edu/papers/conferencePapers/IEE
E-2006-0076.pdf
[6] Songze Li, David T.H. Kao, A. Salman Avestimehr. Rover-
to-Orbiter Communication in Mars: Taking Advantageofthe
Varying Topology. Published in Information Theory (ISIT),
2015 IEEE International Symposium on 14-19 June 2015.
http:// ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7347383/

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