Space Colonisation Part 3

This is the third and final part in my Space Colonisation series.

Now that the robots have settled and have covered nearly every square inch of dirt available, they now have to prepare the planet for human settlement. The process involved would be terraforming.

As it stands, Mars is quite Earth like in terms of distance from the sun and temperature. It is slightly colder than Earth. The main issue with Mars is its atmosphere which is two thin. The issue is not the oxygen levels (all they do lack some) but the carbon dioxide levels. Without much carbon dioxide the atmosphere has a lower pressure than that on Earth. This means that water evaporates quicker and so the plants feel like they are dying from thirst. Carbon dioxide is said to be frozen at the poles, which could be melted using giant mirrors orbiting the Red Planet. Any plants grown could eventually create an oxygen rich atmosphere. Unfortunately this may take for millenia.

The next vital thing needed for humans is that good old hydrogen oxide. Water is said to be a lot more abundant on Mars (frozen at the poles and underground) than on the Moon. It can be melted with orbiting mirrors or it can be dug up from the ground by the robots. This water doesn't just help plants grow or help humans survive, but it can also be "cracked" to produce oxygen and hydrogen as I have mentioned in a previous post. The oxygen can be used as part of rocket fuel to take human excavators back to Earth or stored in tanks for other uses.

The robots would have to build structures for humans as a means of shelter from the cold and the atmosphere. They could be built with metals or even natural plants such as bamboo which would also help scientists on the planet mentally and spiritually.

This is the end of this series of blog posts describing my ideas of the potential use of robots for space colonisation.

Space Colonisation Part 2

This is the second part of a multi-part series of posts on robots and their involvement in colonising different parts of our solar system - and beyond!

To recap from the last post, the spacecraft has landed on Mars and the robots have begun to get busy setting up an area to mine materials and assembled solar panels for power.
Part 2 shows how the robots may colonise the rest of the planet.

Now the robots can only travel a certain distance a day (they would have to return to base to recharge). This means they would be unable to go further and excavate different areas for more materials. The robots could send an advance party with portable solar panels so they could charge up on site but this would lead to only a small number going out which would not be very efficient. The solution; to set up an entire colony to the place of interest.

First, we would need more robots as four from the eight would not be enough to set up a colony. A suggestion may be that the robots build factories, and those factories can produce more robots that would go out to colonise more land and build even more factories. The following image demonstrates this:

                                                        

            Image showing the exponential growth of factories

 As you can see by the image the amount of factories. Our eight robots build robot factories in which enough robots are built to make two (or more) separate factories away from the base. These factories build even more robots that will build factories even further out from the origin, and so on. With this exponential style of growth soon the entire planet's surface will be colonised.

You are now probably asking yourself the question and rightly so, "When are these robots going to get the materials to build all these factories and robots?" In the future, nanotechnology may be developed in which teeny tiny robots build structures from the atoms around. Robots may even be able to find suitable materials underneath the planet's surface. If we were to consider today, or even 100 years from now, the most efficient way would be to salvage old parts from damaged or useless items. The spacecraft, which is now an expensive paperweight, can be taken apart and various items can be used. Any robots that have been destroyed or rendered useless may have some useful parts that can be used. The factories would probably involve robot arms when assembling and building robots so the arm of the damaged robot can be used in the factory, if it still works of course.

The next post in this series would be on focusing on terraforming or changing the planet so it is habitable for humans for long trips.

On a side note, most parts have come in for my Navi project and so I may post up some pics.

Space Colonisation

I was reading an article from an issue of Focus magazine about the colonisation of other planets and the moon. It had mentioned a few parts about robots being used but only for minor tasks. It then got me thinking: What if robots could colonise and work on the planets alone? Or even better, what if the robots could establish themselves and then prepare for human settlers?
   Now I asked myself "how would this be done?" The next few blog posts will explain this process.
  

Part 1: The advance party arrives

The process could start potentially with nothing more than a spacecraft, one robot, a bunch of parts and interchangeable pieces (I will explain later) to build more robots and some solar panels. So you may be asking yourselves "how could one robot build an entire space colony?" Well that is the beauty of this idea as you only need to start with one.

   The robot would basically be just a fairly smart robot with an arm and gripper similar to the one below:

Concept drawing of space colonists

Once the craft has landed on the planet, (let's use mars as it is the planet most similar to earth in the solar system) the robot can start to go about its tasks. The first task is to assemble its robot buddies. Once it has assembled the first one they both can assemble two other robots and so on. "Why not just have them all assembled?" you may be asking. The simple reason is the power supply.To have all the robots running during the serveral month journey to Mars would be inefficient because the robots wouldn't actually be doing much. Of course you may be thinking have them all off and have one "switch on" when the craft lands. Well there is always the danger of the autopilot system being used failing so a robot may have to take over.

  

Once all of the robots have been assembled (let's say 10 as it is nice round figure) they can all go about their tasks. The idea with the interchangeable is that the robots can be assembled with specific tasks such as drilling, sawing and cutting and in the case of the "standard" robot, assembling. Now any robots with the drills attached can starting drilling for resources such as metals and water. Water is not essential at this stage as the robots have to fully establish on the planet before preparing for humans. The water can be "cracked" by electrolysis to produce hydrogen and oxygen for rocket fuel. The other robots can now set up the solar panels to produce power for this tiny space colony.

Part 2 will involve the colonisation of the rest of the planet.

           

Robot Arms, EEG Interfaces and the like

OK so last week on the 25th of September I visited the ISRC (Intelligent Systems Research Centre) in Magee Campus (in Londonderry/Derry). Anyway, I was told that it had the most advanced and well equipped robotics lab in the entire UK and it didn't fail to impress. There were a number of demos in the centre and I had a look at the robotics lab and suprise, suprise, there was was my favorite robotic hand, the Shadow Hand. There is an image of it below:

In the robotics lab they also had one of the UK's largest electronic floors. It's basically a metal floor with an electric current running through it so the robots would never need to be charged.

   There is more however as I discovered in the BCL (Brain Control Lab) there was an EEG interface demo. An EEG basically picks up electrical signals from the surface of your brain and uses these signals to control movements. There were various examples of people playing games and people controlling robots to go left, right, forward and back all with using just their mind.

   I have to say it was a great afternoon observing the demos, especially the group of five robots that could be co-ordinated. 

Navi - Adaptive Mapping Robot

So now I have decided to work on a new project which will be my second robot. I want to try  to build a robot that is a bit more complex in terms of programming than my previous one.

But what will it be?

I will basically build a robot that has adaptive mapping functionality. My robot will eventually able to navigate between two points so it has a purpose (like those cyber taxis they are going to have in Heathrow airport). I will explain more about the actual programming later but for now here are a bunch of CAD images:

                            Navi - Side View

                              Navi - Front View

                             Navi - Isometric View

Arduino Obstacle Avoidance Robot (AOAR)

The first robot I have built is one from a kit but I made a couple of additions so it was more intelligent and could avoid obstacles:

Here is a video of it in action:

And here is another look at the finished product:

I upgraded the robot because I found it very boring to set off around the house. I wanted it to be autonomous so I could just let it off and it would get caught in things often.

   it works by moving a short distance and taking two range readings (one for each rangefinder) and if the value of one is higher than the other (meaning there is an object closer to it than the other) it turns away from the object.

   But suppose there is an obstacle directly in front of the robot. Well if the sensor readings are equal the robot would turn safely away its impending doom.

                                                             Another little bit of programming I added to the robot is that if the obstacles are too far away it will continue to go forward until it comes to a dangerous distance away from it (you can see it in the source code).   

   Where does the AOAR fail? Well I tried it out on my wood decking and it seemed to work despite the fact that sunlight would mess up the sensors. Well, sofas that are high off the ground but not high enough seems to defeat this clever little robot as the sensors are not on the top of the robot. This means that the robot sensors see that there is nothing in the way but in reality there is something in the way.

So if you want to build it you can buy the basic kit from http://robotbits.co.uk/ (it's best if you buy the motor shield already built).

You will also need: 

• 
  
  two Sharp IR Rangefinders (one would do but would be less accurate).
• 
  
  two 3 way JST cables to connect the sensors to the arduino.
• 
  
  a soldering iron
• 
  
  wire cutters and strippers
• 
  
  velcro or other adhesive (to attach the sensors)

To add this upgrade to your arduino robot follow these steps:

1. You will first need to assemble the motor shield and the kit (instructions are available on the website).
2. Next, you will need to solder the black wires of the JST cables to the ground pins on the motor shield and the red wires to the 5V pins on the motor shield.
3. Attach yellow wires to any of the analogue ports (0 and 1 preferably).
4. Use velcro (or any other adhesive) to attach the sensors at the front.

I have the source code here.

Please share your opinion.

The Mind of Oliver

Hi, I am Oliver and this my blog that I created so I can make updates about my robots that I have or going to build. I was also thinking to grab the attention of various people who could give me a scholarship for a robotics degree in CMU in the future. I'm now going into year 11 (year 10 in England and 9th grade in the US) so I have a few years to show my knowledge in robotics.