Good result for The Lunatics Team!

The competition is over, and the result is very good for us!

Not all the teams descended into the crater,
and only two (Bremen and us) could find the sample.
Finally, only Bremen came out of the crater with the sample and therefore won.
Among the remaining five teams, some weren't able to make the descent
and others couldn't find the sample.
Even if there as of now there is no official ranking, we think that Jacobs
and University of Pisa are tied for second.

We were a little unlucky: due to some problems to
the motor of the Casting Manipulator, we had to
reconfigure the vehicle to go down
the crater without the Casting.
A SCHUNK employee brought overnight personally an optimized
drive unit from Germany to Teneriffe.
But due to surrounding conditionsand time schedule it was not possible
to integrate it completely the way we planned it.

At any rate found the crater, descended, and found the sample to collect.
The original mecchanism designed for collecting the sample
(a drill designed to collect samples at various depths) was not
adapted to the way ESA had set up the sample (on the crater surface).
We on-the-fly modified the gripper in the days right before the competition
and were able to collect the sample.
Unfortunately, while ascending the crater to return to the base,
one wheel blocked against a rock, and thus the motor near the wheel
stopped. At the same time, the other wheels got caught up in anylon sheet that
ESA had put under the sample material to keep it from polluting the environment.

...and so we stopped :-(

DAVID leaves for Tenerife

DAVID, the lunar vehicle realized by the Team of the University of Pisa, is ready to run for the moon!

Last saturday the Lunactics Team left for Tenerife, where the final of the ESA Lunar Robotics Challenge will take place.
Before leaving, DAVID has made his official debut in front of the Faculty of Engineering of the University.

In the picture, DAVID and the Lunatics, professor Antonio Bicchi, coordinator of the project, and professor Emilio Vitale, Academic Dean of Enginering.