As part of the Google Lunar X PRIZE, our rover was required to maintain high gain communication throughout its trek. Because of the rough terrain on the moon and the relatively small beam needed for this transmission, it was necessary to actively point the antenna while roving. The gimbal system was designed collaboratively by our team, and the method of pointing used was visual servoing, inertial measurement and motor encoder feedback. The method would use a control loop containing an Earth looking camera that would track the earth and do large scale adjustment. Fine adjustment would be accomplished by inertial measurements and encoder feedback.

Shown here is our design for the antenna gimbal. Details of the control loop and pointing method will be published in the 2009 IEEE Aerospace conference.